GC: n
S: SDir – https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/laudanum (last access: 30 December 2024); NIH – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7884840/ (last access: 30 December 2024).
N: 1. c. 1600, from Modern Latin laudanum (1540s), coined by Paracelsus for a medicine he mixed, supposed to contain gold and crushed pearls and many expensive ingredients, but probably owing its effectiveness to only one of them, opium. Perhaps from Latin laudare “to praise” (see laud), or from Latin ladanum “a gum resin,” from Greek ladanon, a word perhaps of Semitic origin. The word soon came to be used for “any alcoholic tincture of opium.” Latin ladanum was used in Middle English of plant resins, but this is not regarded as the source of the 16c. word.
2. laudanum, originally, the name given by Paracelsus to a famous medical preparation of his own, composed of gold, pearls, and other items but containing opium as its chief ingredient. The name either was invented by Paracelsus from the Latin laudare (“to praise”) or was a corrupted form of ladanum (from the Persian ladan), a resinous juice or gum obtained from various kinds of the Cistus shrub. The term is now used only to describe the alcoholic tincture of opium, a 10 percent solution of opium powder dissolved in high-proof distilled spirits.
3. Medication; Drugs and Drug Addiction: laudanum, opium tincture, tincture of opium.
- The formulation of laudanum was typically a solution of 10 percent opium in alcohol, made by dissolving 2½ ounces of opium powder in a quart of spirits.
- Laudanum was historically used to treat a variety of ailments, but its principal use was as an analgesic and cough suppressant.
4. Cultural Interrelation: We can mention the book
S: 1. Etymonline – https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=laudanum (last access: 30 December 2024). 2. EncBrit – https://www.britannica.com/science/laudanum (last access: 30 December 2024). 3. TERMIUM PLUS – https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&srchtxt=laudanum&index=alt&codom2nd_wet=1#resultrecs (last access: 30 December 2024). 4. Amazon – https://www.amazon.es/Arms-Morpheus-Laudanum-Morphine-Medicines/dp/1552975401 (last access: 30 December 2024).
SYN: opium tincture (depending on context)
S: NCI – https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-drug/def/opium-tincture (last access: 30 December 2024)
CR: opium
