opium
/ˈoʊ.pi.əm/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.46 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
3
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
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.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "From hence we firſt ſailed to Achin, in the iſland of Sumatra, and then to Siam, where we bartered our wares for ſome arrack and opium, the laſt of which bore a great price among the Chineſe:[…]"
- "Opium is largely used by the Chinese as a sexual provocation, both by men and women."
- "When Zhang Jiao and his Yellow Turbans send their peasants, they're not sending their best. They're sending peasants with lots of problems and the peasants bring their problems across the Yangtze. They're bringing opium, they're bandits. And some, I assume, are good people."
- "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, […] It is the opium of the people."
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”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: ὄπιον, *sokʷós
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈoʊ.pi.əm/
- British English: /ˈəʊ.pi.əm/