Etymology

opium

O1P3I1U1M3

Today it means: 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. Full definition →

Ancient Greek ὄπιον (ópion) ← Latin opium ← Proto-Indo-European *sokʷós
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*sokʷós
  2. Ancient Greekὀπός (opós)
  3. Ancient Greekὄπιον (ópion)
  4. Latinopium
  5. Ancient Greekὄπιον (ópion)
  6. English todayopium

Borrowed from Latin opium and Ancient Greek ὄπιον (ópion), from ὀπός (opós, “juice of a plant”), from Proto-Indo-European *sokʷós (“juice, resin”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.