laudanum

From New Latin, from ladanum (“a gum resin”), from Ancient Greek λάδανον (ládanon). Originally the same word as ladanum, labdanum, compare French laudanum, Italian laudano, ladano. Perhaps influenced by Latin laudō (“I praise”). See ladanum.

Used by Paracelsus to refer to ladanum gum, and to a compound recipe containing pearls, but apparently not to any preparation of opium; this modern sense was introduced by his followers (Sigerist 1941:540–1).

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɔːdənəm/, /ˈlɔːdnəm/

• Audio (Southern England)

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laudanum (usually uncountable, plural laudanums)

1. (pharmacology) A tincture of opium, once widely used for various medical purposes and as a recreational drug.
   • 1818, [Mary Shelley], chapter 4, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume III, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, →OCLC:

     Ever since my recovery from the fever I had been in the custom of taking every night a small quantity of laudanum; for it was by means of this drug only that I was enabled to gain the rest necessary for the preservation of life.

   • 1821 September–October, [Thomas De Quincey], “[Part II.] Introduction to the Pains of Opium.”, in Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, 2nd edition, London: […] [J. Moyes] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1823, →OCLC, pages 129–130:

     Whatever else was wanting to a wise man's happiness, —of laudanum I would have given him as much as he wished, and in a golden cup.

   • 1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, chapter XX, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC:

     Whipping and abuse are like laudanum; you have to double the dose as the sensibilities decline.

   • 2016 October 16, Dan Chiasson, “The Man Who Invented the Drug Memoir”, in The New Yorker‎:

     At the time, Wilson writes, England was “marinated in opium, which was taken for everything from upset stomachs to sore heads.” It was swallowed in the form of pills or dissolved in alcohol to make laudanum, the tincture preferred by De Quincey.

   • 2020 November 13, Ligaya Mishan, “Once the Disease of Gluttonous Aristocrats, Gout Is Now Tormenting the Masses”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     In Sydenham’s 1683 treatise on the disease, for the sudden onset of violent symptoms he recommended laudanum — a tincture of opium and alcohol — to take the edge off the pain; […]

• Dutchman's laudanum
• Sydenham's laudanum

laudanum (third-person singular simple present laudanums, present participle laudanuming, simple past and past participle laudanumed)

1. (transitive) To add laudanum to (a drink or the like).
2. (rare) To cause (a person) to be high on laudanum.

• Sigerist, Henry E. (1941). "Laudanum in the works of Paracelsus". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 9 (5):530–544.
• “laudanum”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “laudanum”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): [ˈlau̯daːnum]

laudanum n

1. laudanum (tincture of opium)

• IPA^(key): /lo.da.nɔm/

• Audio

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laudanum m (usually uncountable, plural laudanums)

1. laudanum

• “laudanum”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈlau̯.da.num/, [ˈɫ̪äu̯d̪änʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈlau̯.da.num/, [ˈläːu̯d̪änum]

laudanum n (genitive laudanī); second declension

1. laudanum

Second-declension noun (neuter).

• laudanum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)

Borrowed from French laudanum or Latin laudanum.

laudanum n (uncountable)

1. laudanum