Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A camphorated tincture of opium, taken internally for the relief of diarrhea and intestinal pain.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- In medicine, mitigating; assuaging pain.
- n. A medicine that mitigates pain; an anodyne.
- n. Specifically A camphorated tincture of opium, flavored with aromatics.
Wiktionary
- n. a painkiller; a medicine which soothes or relieves pain
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Mitigating; assuaging or soothing pain.
- n. (Med.) A medicine that mitigates pain; an anodyne; specifically, camphorated tincture of opium; -- called also
paregoric elexir .
WordNet 3.0
- n. medicine used to treat diarrhea
Etymologies
- Late Latin paregoricus, from Greek παρηγοριχος ‘encouraging, soothing’, from παρηγορειν ‘console, soothe’. (Wiktionary)
- Late Latin parēgoricus, soothing, from Greek parēgorikos, from parēgorein, to talk over, soothe, from parēgoros, consoling : para-, beside; see para-1 + agorā, agora; see agora1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Oh for the good old days when it was acceptable to go to the druggist, whisper "paregoric" to him/her, and a few drops brought blessed silence!”
“I once had an awful cold, and the old gentleman I worked for suggested equal parts honey, lemon, whiskey, and paregoric.”
“I didn't know one could even get paregoric any more.”
“Oh for the good old days when it was acceptable to go to the druggist, whisper “paregoric” to him/her, and a few drops brought blessed silence!”
“You can still buy the stuff today, albeit paregoric or whatever the magical ingredient was -free.”
“In the supposedly drug-free past, children were put to bed with paregoric, old folks beatified themselves with Hadacol, and teetotal housewives contentedly glugged 80-proof women's trouble remedies.”
“Nonetheless, standard narcotic remedies like paregoric remained readily available into the early 20th century, and Benzedrine inhalers were marketed without prescription until the early 1950s.”
“I hate a little too much fish last night, so I had my paregoric here today, but I ` ve saved drinking it until you actually drink it.”
“After a while my husband realized he always took her to a different drugstore and that she always bought paregoric.”
“She was addicted to paregoric and he was an alcoholic.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘paregoric’.
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phrontistery - p
from phrontistery.info
pabouche, pabulous, pabulum, pacable, pace, pachydermia, pachyglossal, pachymeter, pachynsis, paciferous, pacificate, pactolian and 1766 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Specifically
Being a list of words which have "specifically" in their definitions.
recompose, specifically, Dutch, abstinence, discipline, virtue, namely, opening, century, amalgamation, cup, second and 303 more...
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naked lunch
smother party, dropper, hot shot, fingers of rotten..., fuzz, dunking pound cake, narcotic effluvium, psychic jiujitsu, black insect laug..., Black Meat, bright colors ove..., Mugwump and 15 more...
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jeffrey.t.whitney's list
sartorial, sabbatarian, sagacious, desiccate, ersatz, insouciant, atavistic, luddite, crwth, obdurate, stentorian, ruminate and 51 more...
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Things from my memory
nigger baby, mexican jumping bean, puddle jumper, mood ring, pet rock, cat scratch fever, taxman, hippie, vaseline, argyrol, mercurchrome, methiolade and 655 more...
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aphaziak's list
Word Infatuations
prelapsarian, tricksy, podophthalmia, paregoric, struldbrug, econorrhea, transmundane, hoyden
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Worse Than They Sound
fistula, cryptosporidium, debride, donnybrook, decerebrate, pillory, flagellate, disembogue, minatory, micturate, coprolite, nosocomial and 160 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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The Whiteness of the Whale
Words in Melville's "Moby Dick"
grapnels, spile, pea coffee, farrago, grego, bosky, bombazine, brevet, cenotaph, cupidity, kelson, obliquity and 164 more...
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rhii's words to remember and incorporate
Just whatever words I might happen across in my wanderings that I find myself compelled to write down so that I remember to try to use them. Not necessarily unusual words, but worthwhile ones.
redact, treatise, vitrify, cogitate, propensity, silphium, saccharine, minutiae, sluicing, dalliance, remonstrated, carnelian and 131 more...
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Moby-Dick
Interesting words and usages.
hypo, spile, hunks, grapnel, squitchy, skrimshander, monkey jacket, direful, grego, wrapall, dreadnaught, bosky and 158 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
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looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1408 more...
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DEF's list
Obscure Words
obfuscate, harbinger, morose, meniscus, conspicuous, grandiose, cogitated, matron, erudite, oness, apothegms, assuage and 475 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for paregoric.

treeseed "Paregoric, or camphorated tincture of opium, also known as tinctura opii camphorata, is a medication known for its antidiarrheal, antitussive, and analgesic properties. It was a household remedy in the 18th and 19th centuries, when it was widely used to calm fretful children. In the 20th century its use declined as governments regulated it. (In the United States, paregoric can still be found in the pharmacopeia, but it is a Schedule III drug under the Controlled Substances Act.)
The principal active ingredient is powdered opium (containing the equivalent of 0.4 mg/mL of morphine). Other ingredients are benzoic acid, camphor, glycerin, anise oil and purified water. The main effect of this preparation is to increase the muscular tone of the intestine, and also to inhibit normal peristalsis. Its main medicinal use is to control fulminant diarrhea. It is also an antitussive (cough suppressant). Problems with its use include opiate dependency and analgesia which can mask symptoms of diseases that need treatment." __Wikipedia
My grandmother used to give this opium concoction to us for "crankiness."
Feb 18, 2009
yarb He asked for paregoric. They sent him a big bottle; enough to poison a wilderness of babies.
- Conrad, The Nigger of the 'Narcissus', ch. 3 Dec 20, 2008
yarb "Who's got some paregoric?" said Stubb, "he has the stomach-ache, I'm afraid."
- Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 81 Jul 26, 2008