The story
Probably from Ancient Greek ζάλη (zálē, “storm, distress”) + -plon (“imidazopyrimidine or pyrazolopyrimidine derivative”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
zaleplon
Today it means: A sedative hypnotic drug of the pyrazolopyrimidine class, mainly used to treat insomnia, rare among such drugs in having been found not to cause an increase in road traffic accidents. Full definition →