| 释义 |
laudanum|ˈlɔːd(ə)nəm, ˈlɒ-|
Also 8 lodanum, 9 dial. lodlum, Sc. lodomy.
[a. mod.L. laudanum, used by Paracelsus as the name of a medicament for which he gives a pretended prescription, the ingredients comprising leaf-gold, pearls not perforated, etc. (Opera 1658 I. 492/2). It was early suspected that opium was the real agent of the cures which Paracelsus professed to have effected by this costly means; hence the name was applied to certain opiate preparations which were sold as identical with his famous remedy.
It is doubtful whether the word as used by Paracelsus was a fanciful application of laudanum a med.L. variant of ladanum, or was suggested by laudāre to praise or by some other word, or was formed quite arbitrarily.]
1. In early use, a name for various preparations in which opium was the main ingredient. Now only: The simple alcoholic tincture of opium.
1602–3Manningham Diary (Camden) 46 There is a certaine kinde of compound called Laudanum..the virtue of it is very soueraigne to mitigate anie payne. 1643Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. ii. §12, I need no other Laudanum than this to make me sleep. 1694Salmon Bate's Dispens. (1713) 267/2 It is of the Nature of other Laudanums. 1704F. Fuller Medic. Gymn. (1711) 255, I was deny'd likewise the Ease which is to be obtain'd by Laudanum. 1739‘R. Bull’ tr. Dedekindus' Grobianus 166 Your Mischief, being fully done, Will make you sleep as well as Laudanum. a1828Lang Johnny More ix. in Child Ballads (1892) IV. 398 They..gae him draps o lodomy That laid him fast asleep. 1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xxxiv. 310, I gave him laudanum, and held him close to my bosom while he slept to death.
fig.a1711Ken Dedicat. Poet. Wks. 1721 I. 3 Pain haunting me, I court the sacred Muse, Verse is the only Laudanum I use. 1789G. Keate Pelew Isl. 293 The Laudanum of rhetoric, whose property will occasionally benumb..the power of common understandings.
†2. = ladanum 1.
1616Bullokar, Laudanum, a yellowish gumme, as some write; notwithstanding others affirm it to be made of a dew, which falleth vpon a certaine herbe in Greece. 1702W. J. Bruyn's Voy. Levant lxxii. 272 Laudanum..proceeds from a Dew which falls on the leaves of a small Plant about half a foot high, which does something resemble small Sage.
3. Comb., as laudanum-raised adj.
1800Weems Washington i. (1877) 8 The fine laudanum-raised spirits of the young sparklers.
Hence ˈlaudanum v. trans., to dose with laudanum.
1839–40Thackeray Catherine v, You'd laudanum him. |