English Explanatory Dictionary

opium

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A yellow-brown, addictive narcotic drug obtained from the dried juice of unripe pods of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, and containing alkaloids such as morphine, codeine, and papaverine.
  2. Anything that numbs or stupefies.

Pronunciation

ō′pēəm /ˈoʊ.pi.əm/ /ˈəʊ.pi.əm/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-opium.wav ōp′yəm /ˈoʊp.jəm/

Word forms

opium opiums opia

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sokʷós Ancient Greek ὀπός (opós) Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Ancient Greek -ῐος (-ĭos)? Ancient Greek -ῐον (-ĭon) Ancient Greek ὄπιον (ópion)bor. Latin opiumbor. ▲ Ancient Greek ὄπιον (ópion)bor. English opium Borrowed from Latin opium and Ancient Greek ὄπιον (ópion), from ὀπός (opós, “juice of a plant”), from Proto-Indo-European *sokʷós (“juice, resin”).

Synonyms

aunti/aunti Emma big O chandu Chinese tobacco dopium dream gun dream stick fi-do-nie gee God's medicine gondola goric guma hop/hops meconium midnight oil mud ope pen yan pin gon pox skee toxy when-shee yen ze zero

Derived words

antiopium antiopiumist copium hopium lanthopine lettuce opium opianine opiomania opiorphin opium alkaloid opium den opium-eater opium-eating opiumism opiumist opium lamp opiumlike opium pillow opium pipe opium poppy Opium War wine of opium
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on O Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary