Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Opium |
OpiumNoun1. An addictive narcotic extracted from seed capsules of the opium poppy. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "opium" was first used: 1392. (references) |
Etymology: Opium \O"pi*um\, noun. [Latin expression, from the Greek expression poppy juice, diminutive of vegetable juice.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
19th Century Satire | The real author of "The Dream Book." Source: Foolish Dictionary, 1904. |
Dream Interpretation | To dream of opium, signifies strangers will obstruct your chances of improving your fortune, by sly and seductive means. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Health | The air-dried exudate from the unripe seed capsule of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, or its variant, P. album. It contains a number of alkaloids, but only a few - morphine, codeine, and papaverine - have clinical significance. Opium has been used as an analgesic, antitussive, antidiarrheal, and antispasmodic. (references) |
Multilingual Slang | Spanish (chinaloa, chocalate de fu man chu). (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Opium is a narcotic drug, which is obtained from the unripe seed pods of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum). To harvest opium, the skin of the ripening pods is scored by a sharp blade. The slashes exude a white, milky latex, which dries to a sticky brown material that is scraped off the pods as raw opium. Opium is highly physically addictive and its pharmacological action occurs because it binds to endorphin receptors in the brain. The mechanism of addiction and tolerance results from changes in nervous system receptors in response to the drug.
Opium has been a major item of trade for centuries, and widely used as a painkiller and sedative. Many patent medicines of the 19th century were based around laudanum (a solution of opium in alcohol). Opium can also be smoked, sometimes in combination with tobacco. In the 19th century, the attempt by China to stop the British trade in this form of opium from India was the cause of the Opium Wars, which led to Britain acquiring Hong Kong.
There were no legal restrictions on the importation or use of opium in the United States until the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914. Medicines often contained opium without any warning label. Today, there are numerous national and international laws governing the production and distribution of narcotic substances.
Although opium is used in the form of paregoric to treat diarrhea, most opium imported into the United States is broken down into its alkaloid constituents. These alkaloids are divided into two distinct chemical classes, phenanthrenes and isoquinolines. The principal phenanthrenes are morphine, codeine, and thebaine, while the isoquinolines have no significant central nervous system effects and are not regulated under the Controlled Substances Act. Opium is also illegally processed into heroin, and most current drug abuse occurs with processed derivatives rather than with raw opium.
See also: Opium Wars, opiates, Sir Thomas Browne Thomas de Quincy, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats
External Links
- Opium in Japan
- Opium Poppies
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Opium."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
OPIUM | English | Operational Project for Integrated Urban Management | Building & Civil Engineering |
| op | English | Opium | Food & Agriculture, Medicine |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Inactivity | Idler, drone, droil, dawdle, mopus; do-little faineant, dummy, sleeping partner; afternoon farmer; truant; (runaway) : bummer, loafer, goldbrick, goldbicker, lounger, lazzarone; lubber, lubbard; slow coach; (slow.); opium eater, lotus eater; slug; lag, sluggard, slugabed; slumberer, dormouse, marmot; waiter on Providence, fruges consumere natus. |
Intemperance | Bhang, hashish, marijuana, pot, hemp, grass; opium, cocaine, morphine, heroin; LSD, lysergic acid diethylamide; phencyclidine, angel dust, PCP; barbiturates; amphetamines, speed. |
Moderation | Measure, juste milieu, golden mean, gr/ariston metron/gr moderator; lullaby, sedative, lenitive, demulcent, antispasmodic, carminative, laudanum; rose water, balm, poppy, opiate, anodyne, milk, opium, "poppy or mandragora"; wet blanket; palliative. |
Physical Insensibility | Anaesthetic agent, opium, ether, chloroform, chloral; nitrous oxide, laughing gas; exhilarating gas, protoxide of nitrogen; refrigeration. |
Vice | Brothel; gambling house; joint, opium den, shooting gallery, crack house. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | You've tested positive for opium. (Seinfeld; writing credit: Andreas Lenze; Bea Schmidt) It's not the opium - it's my mind (Pandaemonium; writing credit: Frank Cottrell Boyce) Opium is my business (Volunteers; writing credit: Keith Critchlow; David Isaacs) What's next Mr. Fear and Loathing in Nitz-Vegas? Opium Bends (Undergrads; writing credit: Kid Vegas) Operator, you have obviously never been trapped in a Chinese opium den (Thoroughly Modern Millie; writing credit: Richard Morris) | |
Movie/TV Titles | L' Opium et le baton (1971) Confessions of an Opium Eater (1962) Or The Opium Smugglers Yachts and Hearts (1918) Satan Opium (1915) The Opium Cigarettes (1914) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
References | |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | ... an opium addict in Iran lights his pipe of dreams. / WHO photo. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | The outfit of the opium smoker. / Official photograph issued by the Narcotics Bureau, Hong Kong Police. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
 | [An opium addict in Iran lights his pipe of dreams] / [WHO photo]. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | American Opium-Smokers : Interior of a New York Opium Den. / Drawn by J.W. Alexander. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
 | Le grande fumerie de tabac ... ; Who says they don't smoke at the Opium Conference? / Roth. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Chinese Americans in an opium den. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | The opium fiend, Chinatown, San Francisco. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | King of the opium ring big scenic sensation : by Chas. E. Blaney & Chas. A. Taylor. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Opium poppy and bee" by Russell Jones Commentary: "Opium poppy with bee." | "Opium Field" by Erika Thorpe Commentary: "Okay so it's not exactly a field, just a few clumps, it just sounded more poetic calling it an Opium field." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Henri Frederic Amiel | Thought is a kind of opium; it can intoxicate us, while still broad awake; it can make transparent the mountains and everything that exists. |
Thomas de Quincey | Thou has the keys of Paradise, O just, subtle, and mighty Opium! |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Treaty of Versailles | 1919 | Those of the High Contracting Parties who have not yet signed, or who have signed but not yet ratified, the Opium Convention signed at The Hague on January 23, 1912, agree to bring the said Convention into force, and for this purpose to enact the necessary legislation without delay and in any case within a period of twelve months from the coming into force of the present Treaty. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Natural opiates (paregoric, deodorized tincture of opium, and codeine) have long been used to control diarrhea and cramps. (references) | |
Physician-scientists discovered that opium, morphine, codeine, and cocaine could be used to treat pain. These drugs led to the development of aspirin, to this day the most commonly used pain reliever. (references) | ||
Economic History | Afghanistan | Estimates show that the figure for 2001 is much reduced, except for opium. (references) |
Afghanistan | Opium is easy to cultivate and transport and offers a quick source of income for impoverished Afghans. (references) | |
Afghanistan | In 1996, exports, not including opium, were estimated at $80 million and imports estimated at $150 million. (references) | |
Human Rights | Korea | The main targets of the purge were frequent travelers to China and persons addicted to opium. (references) |
Political Economy | Afghanistan | In 1999 and 2000, the country was the world's largest opium producer. (references) |
Afghanistan | Trade consisted mainly of opium, fruits, minerals, gems, and carpets, as well as the smuggling of goods to Pakistan. (references) | |
Trade | El Salvador | G. Opium with less than nine % morphine, scraps and opium ash, and any material used for smoking those products. (references) |
Armenia | These restrictions include required authorization for weapons, components used in the production of weapons, explosives, nuclear materials, poison, narcotics, strong psychotropic substances, devices for use in opium smoking, and pornographic materials. (references) | |
Bangladesh | Other items completely banned on either religious/social/health grounds or on economic grounds in the case of textile products that compete directly with locally produced items, including: live pigs, pig and poultry fat, eggs (except hatching eggs), poppy seeds and dried posto dana, marijuana, opium, tendu leaves, lard, lard and tallow oil, solid or semi-solid palm oil, raw sugar, un-denatured ethyl alcohol (80.0% or higher) and other spirits denatured of any strength, wine, artificial mustard oil, selected petroleum products, woven fabrics of silk or silk waste, pig hair, some kinds of cloth, selected insecticides, nylon and polyethylene ropes, fishing nets (gillnets), used or new rags, vessels more than 15 years old, motorbikes more than three years old, and single phase electricity meters. (references) | |
Travel | Egypt | The death penalty may be imposed on anyone convicted of smuggling or selling marijuana, hashish, opium, LSD, or other narcotics. (references) |
Worker Rights | Burma | Government troops also forced villagers to eradicate opium poppy fields. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Opium" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Opium" is used about 198 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 198 | 21,729 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "opium": camphorated tincture of opium ♦ Lettuce opium ♦ opium addict ♦ opium addiction ♦ opium den ♦ opium drinker ♦ opium eater ♦ opium fiend ♦ opium joint ♦ opium poppy ♦ opium taker ♦ powdered opium ♦ prepared opium ♦ smoking opium ♦ tincture of opium ♦ wine of opium. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "opium": opium-addict, opium-addicted, opium-based, opium-den, opium-dependent, opium-eater, opium-eating, opium-growing, opium-induced, opium-inspired, opium-like, opium-planting, opium-producing, opium-smoker, opium-taking, opium-traders. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
opium | 797 | opium plant | 17 |
opium poppy | 188 | garden miami opium | 15 |
opium war | 107 | opium production | 15 |
make opium | 49 | growing opium | 15 |
opium drug | 45 | lettuce opium wild | 15 |
opium perfume | 44 | opium red rock | 14 |
effects of opium | 40 | harvesting opium | 14 |
opium poppy seed | 39 | opium history | 12 |
opium pipe | 39 | miami opium | 11 |
opium smoking | 38 | information opium | 11 |
opium garden | 38 | opium seed | 10 |
opium picture poppy | 32 | cultivation opium | 9 |
opium picture | 31 | club opium | 9 |
lettuce opium | 30 | opium tea | 9 |
opium tincture | 29 | fact opium | 9 |
making opium | 27 | growing opium poppy | 8 |
opium den | 25 | growing guide making masses opium opium poppy practical | 8 |
bed opium | 20 | flower opium | 8 |
opium smoke | 19 | opium addiction | 8 |
grow opium | 18 | harvest opium | 8 |
opium people religion | 8 | ||
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "opium"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | opium. (various references) | |
Arabic | مخدر يستخرج من الخشخاش, أفيون. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | опиум (dope, hop, poppy), опий. (various references) | |
Chinese | 阿片 , 鸦片 (Poppies, Poppy), 鴉片 . (various references) | |
Czech | opium (dope). (various references) | |
Danish | opium (big O, black stuff, opiate). (various references) | |
Dutch | opium (big O, black stuff). (various references) | |
Esperanto | opio. (various references) | |
Faeroese | opium. (various references) | |
Farsi | تریاک , افیون (Fix, Hop). (various references) | |
Finnish | oopiumi. (various references) | |
French | opium. (various references) | |
German | Opium (big O, black stuff). (various references) | |
Greek | όπιο (big O, black stuff). (various references) | |
Hebrew | אופיום. (various references) | |
Hungarian | ópium. (various references) | |
Indonesian | candu. (various references) | |
Italian | oppio (big O, black stuff). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 麻薬 (dope, narcotic, narcotic drugs). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | まやく (dope, narcotic, narcotic drugs), あへん. (various references) | |
Korean | 아편. (various references) | |
Manx | soo chadlee, fraue cadleen, fraue cadlee, cadleen. (various references) | |
Papiamen | opio. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | opiumay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | ópio (big O, black stuff). (various references) | |
Romanian | opiu (opiate), afion (torpor). (various references) | |
Russian | опиум, опий. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | opijum. (various references) | |
Spanish | opio (big O, black stuff). (various references) | |
Swedish | opium (hop). (various references) | |
Thai | ฝิ่น. (various references) | |
Turkish | afyon (opium poppy, poppy, smoke). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | опіум, опій. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | người hút thuốc phiện (opium-eater). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | opion. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "opium": opiumism, opiumisms, opiums. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "opium": europium. (additional references) | |
Words containing "opium": europiums. (additional references) | |
| |
"Opium" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: aipim, Mobium, Ociam, Okpomo, oliua, ominum, onium, opi, opim, Opio, opion, opism, opius, oppau, oppian, Optilux, optitum, optium, opun, otium, oxiom, pium, popadum, poui. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "opium" (pronounced ō"pēum) |
| 5 | ō" p ē u m | europium. |
| 3 | -ē u m | alluvium, ammonium, aquarium, atrium, auditorium, axiom, bacterium, barium, beryllium, medium, millennium, minium, moratorium, myocardium, nephridium, neptunium, niobium, nobelium, opprobrium, osmium, palladium, pandemonium, paramecium, petroleum, planetarium, Plasmodium, plutonium, podium, polonium, potassium, premium, presidium, promethium, protium, psyllium, radium, cadmium, calcium, cesium, chromium, colloquium, compendium, condominium, consortium, crematorium, delirium, deuterium, disequilibrium, emporium, equilibrium, fermium, gallium, geranium, gonium, gymnasium, hafnium, harmonium, helium, Herbarium, holmium, honorarium, idiom, indium, iridium, lawrencium, linoleum, lithium, magnesium, requiem, rhodium, selenium, sodium, stadium, strontium, superpremium, symposium, tedium, tellurium, thallium, thorium, titanium, tritium, uranium, vanadium, yttrium, zirconium. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "i-m-o-p-u" | |
-2 letters: imp, mop, piu, poi, pom, ump, upo. | |
-3 letters: mi, mo, mu, om, op, pi, um, up. | |
| Words containing the letters "i-m-o-p-u" | |
+1 letter: opiums, podium. | |
+2 letters: impious, impound, optimum, podiums, protium, spumoni, utopism. | |
+3 letters: emporium, europium, gumption, imporous, impounds, opiumism, optimums, peponium, polonium, populism, protiums, pulmonic, spumonis, upcoming, utopisms. | |
+4 letters: amphioxus, bumptious, computing, emporiums, euphonium, europiums, gumptions, hospitium, imperious, impetuous, impiously, importune, impostume, imposture, impounded, impromptu, impulsion, multicopy, multipion, multipole, opiumisms, peponiums, plutonium, pneumonia, pneumonic, pollinium, poloniums, populisms, potassium, pumiceous, puromycin, semigroup, sympodium, symposium, uropygium. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Images: Digital Art 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Quotations: Historic 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Usage Frequency 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Translations: Ancient 16. Abbreviations | 17. Acronyms 18. Derivations 19. Rhymes 20. Anagrams | 21. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
