Aspirin

Definition: Aspirin

Aspirin

Noun

1. The acetylated derivative of salicylic acid; used as an analgesic anti-inflammatory drug (trade names Bayer and Empirin) usually taken in tablet form; used as an antipyretic; slows clotting of the blood by poisoning platelets.

Date "aspirin" was first used: 1899 as a German trademark name. (references)

Specialty Definition: Aspirin

Domain	Definition
Computing	Aspirin A freeware language from MITRE Corporation for the description of neural networks. A compiler, bpmake, is included. Aspirin is designed for use with the MIGRAINES interface. Version: 6.0, as of 1995-03-08. (ftp://ftp.cognet.ucla.edu/alexis/). (1995-03-08). Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing.
Health	A drug that reduces pain, fever, inflammation, and blood clotting. Aspirin belongs to the family of drugs called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents. It is also being studied in cancer prevention. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Aspirin

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Aspirin molecule

Aspirin is a brand name coined by the Bayer company of Germany for acetylsalicylic acid, a drug in the family of salicylates, often used as an analgesic, antipyretic, and anti-inflammatory. In some countries, the name is used as a generic term for the drug rather than the manufacturer's trademark.

At one time aspirin was commonly used to control fever and pain due to flu or the common cold. However because there appears to be a connection between aspirin and Reyes syndrome, aspirin is no longer used to control flu-like symptoms. Low-dose long-term aspirin irreversibly blocks formation of thromboxane A2 in blood platelets, producing an inhibitory affect on platelet aggregation, i.e. blood thinning property, making it useful for reducing the incidence of heart attacks. Aspirin produced for this purpose often comes in 75 mg dispersible tablets. Its primary undesirable side effects, especially in stronger doses, are gastrointestinal distress (including stomach bleeding) and tinnitus.

Aspirin was the first discovered member of the class of drugs known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), not all of which are salicylates, though they all have similar effects and a similar action mechanism.

History

Hippocrates, a Greek for whom the Hippocratic Oath is named, wrote about a bitter powder extracted from willow bark that could ease aches and pains and reduce fevers as long ago as the fifth century B.C. It is also mentioned in texts from ancient Sumeria, Egypt and Assyria. Native American Indians used it for headaches, fever, sore muscles, rheumatism, and chills. The Reverend Edmund Stone, a vicar from Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire England, noted in 1763 that the bark of the english willow was effective in reducing a fever, but his reasoning for that was very much in error.

The active extract of the bark, called salicin, after the latin name for the white willow (Salix alba), was isolated to its crystaline form in 1828 by Henri Leroux, a French pharmacist, and Raffaele Piria, an Italian chemist, then succeeded in splitting it up to obtain the acid in its pure state. Salicin is highly acidic when in a saturated solution with water (pH = 2.4), and is called salicylic acid for that reason. Salicylic acid's systematic name is 2-hydroxybenzoic acid.

This chemical was also isolated from meadowsweet flowers (latin name spiraea) by German researchers in 1839, and while somewhat effective, also caused many digestive problems including irritated stomach and diarrhea, and can cause death in higher doses. In 1897 Felix Hoffmann, a chemist working for Friedrich Bayer & Co. in Germany, derivatized one of the hydroxyl functional groups in salicylic acid with an acetyl group (forming the acetyl ester) which greatly reduced the negative effects. The new drug, named a- (for the acetyl group) -spir- (for the flower) -in (a common ending for drugs at the time), had fewer side effects and was more effective than salicin or salicylic acid. This was the first synthetic drug, not a copy of something that existed in nature, and the start of the pharmaceuticals industry. Bayer registered aspirin as a trademark on March 6, 1899.

However, the German company lost the right to use the trademark in many countries as the Allies seized and resold its foreign assets as a result of World War I. In the United States, the right to use "Aspirin" there (along with all other Bayer trademarks) was purchased from the U.S. government by Sterling Drug, Inc in 1918. Even before the patent went into the public domain in 1917, Bayer had been unable to stop competitors from copying the formula and using the name elsewhere, and so with a flooded market, the public was unable to recognize "Aspirin" as coming from only one manufacturer. Sterling was subsquently unable to prevent "Aspirin" from being ruled a generic mark (and therefore unprotected) in a U.S. federal court in 1921. Other countries (such as Canada) still consider "Aspirin" a protected trademark.

How it works

In a piece of research for which he was awarded both a Nobel prize and a knighthood, John Vane, who was then employed by the Royal College of Surgeons in London, showed in 1971 that aspirin suppresses the production of local hormones known as prostaglandins. Cyclooxygenase, an enzyme which participates in the production of prostaglandins and thromboxanes, is irreversibly inactivated when aspirin attaches to it.

Prostaglandins are local hormones (paracrine) produced in the body and have diverse effects in the body, including but not limited to transmission of pain information to the brain, modulation of the hypothalamic thermostat and inflammation. Additionally thromboxanes are responsible for the aggregation of platelets that form blood clots. Heart attacks are primarily caused by blood clots, and their reduction with the introduction of small amounts of aspirin has been seen to be an effective medical intervention. The side effect of this is that the ability of the blood in general to clot is reduced, and excessive bleeding may result from the use of aspirin.

External links

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Aspirin."

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Synonym: Aspirin

Synonym: acetylsalicylic acid (n). (additional references)

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Crosswords: Aspirin

English words defined with "aspirin": 2-hydroxybenzoic acid ♦ acute gastritis, aspirin powder ♦ buffered aspirin, Bufferin ♦ call, call up, Cox, cyclooxygenase ♦ enteric-coated aspirin ♦ headache powder ♦ phone ♦ respiratory alkalosis, ring ♦ salicylate poisoning, salicylic acid ♦ telephone. (references)

Specialty definitions using "aspirin": artificial neural network ♦ bpmake ♦ FIRST-AID ATTENDANT ♦ MALACHRA, MIGRAINES ♦ non-narcotic analgesic, nurse, first aid. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Aspirin" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses.

Albanian (aspirin), Czech (aspirin), German (aspirin), Hawaiian (aspirin), Indonesian (aspirin), Papiamen (aspirin), Serbo-Croatian (aspirin), Swedish (aspirin), Turkish (aspirin).

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Modern Usage: Aspirin

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	You know, sneak a smoke, see if anybody slipped an aspirin in my coke. (Gilmore Girls; writing credit: Povl Erik Carstensen; Sebastian Dorset) I know that if a man has a compound fracture and a headache, you put on a tourniquet before you give him an aspirin. (Wake Me When It's Over; writing credit: Richard L. Breen; Howard Singer)
Movie/TV Titles	Free Aspirin and Tender Sympathy (1991)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Aspirin

Domain	Title
References	The 2000-2005 Outlook for Aspirin in Asia (reference) (more reference examples)

Books	Beyond Aspirin : Nature's Challenge to Arthritis, Cancer & Alzheimer's Disease (reference) Of Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax, Cabbages and Kings and Aspirin As Needed (reference) How Does Aspirin Find a Headache? (reference) The Aspirin Wars: Money, Medicine, and 100 Years of Rampant Competition (reference) Aspirin and Other Salicylates (reference) (more book examples)

Theater & Movies	Calm Yourself With Video Aspirin (reference) (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music	Ebola Aspirin (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: Aspirin

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Photo Album: Aspirin

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Stroke Prevention in Atrial Fibrillation : Should Anticoagulants or Aspirin be Used for Life? Do the Benefits Outweigh the Risks? / National Institutes of Health. Credit: National Library of Medicine.		Aspirin And Heart Disease. Credit: National Library of Medicine.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Aspirin

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		The most widely known and used antiplatelet drug is aspirin. (references)
		Many of these products contain aspirin, which can affect platelets. (references)
		Single analgesics (e.g., aspirin alone) have not been found to cause kidney damage. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Spoken Usage: Aspirin

Speaker	Phrase(s)
Rush Limbaugh	Clinton did launch missiles at aspirin factories and empty terrorist camps during the Monica Lewinsky grand jury proceedings, but the goal there was to distract the people's attention from Monica Lewinsky's testimony, not to get bin Laden.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Aspirin

"Aspirin" is generally used as a noun (common) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Aspirin" is used about 323 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 (common)	100%	323	16,021

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expressions: Aspirin

Expressions using "aspirin": Arthritis Foundation Aspirin ♦ Arthritis Foundation Aspirin Free ♦ Aspirin and Codeine ♦ Aspirin Free Anacin ♦ Aspirin Free Excedrin ♦ aspirin powder ♦ Bayer Aspirin [OTC] ♦ Bayer Buffered Aspirin [OTC] ♦ buffered aspirin ♦ Carisoprodol and Aspirin ♦ Extra Strength Bayer Enteric 500 Aspirin [OTC] ♦ Hydrocodone and Aspirin ♦ Methocarbamol and Aspirin ♦ Oxycodone and Aspirin ♦ Propoxyphene and Aspirin ♦ Regular Strength Bayer Enteric 500 Aspirin [OTC] ♦ St Joseph Adult Chewable Aspirin [OTC]. Additional references.
Hyphenated Usage
	Beginning with "aspirin": aspirin-like.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Aspirin

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
aspirin	796	aspirin heart	15
dog aspirin	106	aspirin from originates plant	13
aspirin plant	87	aspirin and heart attack	13
aspirin does from originate plant	79	aspirin ingredient	13
bayer aspirin	63	aspirin does from it originate plant	13
aspirin side effects	49	aspirin dog dosage	12
aspirin overdose	46	benefit of aspirin	11
robert aspirin	43	alcohol and aspirin	11
baby aspirin	37	child aspirin	10
80 american aspirin consume does from it million originate over plant tablet year	37	aspirin picture	10
aspirin come does from plant	37	aspirin come does from where	10
aspirin therapy	36	aspirin from made plant	9
aspirin pregnancy	31	buffered aspirin	9
aspirin history	30	aspirin from plant	9
aspirin allergy	29	aspirin works	8
aspirin origin	25	aspirin baby miscarriage	8
aspirin comes from plant	23	aspirin originate plant	8
aspirin synthesis	18	aspirin during pregnancy	8
cat aspirin	17	aspirin ibuprofen	8
baby aspirin pregnancy	15	aspirin joseph st	7
		ephedrine caffeine aspirin	7
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Aspirin

Language		Translations for "aspirin"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		aspirinë, aspirin. (various references)

Arabic		‏قرص أسبرين, ‏أسبرين دواء. (various references)

Bulgarian		аспирин. (various references)

Chinese		阿斯匹灵, 阿司匹林 . (various references)

Czech		aspirin. (various references)

Dutch		aspirine. (various references)

Esperanto		aspirino. (various references)

Farsi		اسپرین . (various references)

Finnish		aspiriini. (various references)

French		aspirine (aspirins). (various references)

German		Aspirin. (various references)

Greek		ασπιρίνη. (various references)

Hawaiian		aspirin. (various references)

Hungarian		aszpirin (acetylsalicylic acid). (various references)

Indonesian		aspirin. (various references)

Italian		aspirina. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		アスパラギン酸 (aspartame, aspartic acid, asphalt, asphalt jungle, aspic, aspirin snow, Aspite). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		アス�"リン . (various references)

Korean		아스�"�린. (various references)

Manx		aspryn. (various references)

Norwegian		globoid. (various references)

Papiamen		aspirin. (various references)

Pig Latin		aspirinay

Portuguese		aspirina. (various references)

Romanian		aspirinå, aspirinã. (various references)

Russian		аспирин. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		aspirin. (various references)

Sicilian		aspirina. (various references)

Spanish		aspirina. (various references)

Swedish		aspirin. (various references)

Thai		แอสไพริน. (various references)

Turkish		aspirin, aspírín. (various references)

Ukrainian		аспірин. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Aspirin

Language	Period	Translations
Greek	700 BCE-300 CE	a-. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Aspirin

Derivations
	Words beginning with "aspirin": aspiring, aspirins. (additional references)
	Words ending with "aspirin": nonaspirin. (additional references)
	Words containing "aspirin": nonaspirins. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Aspirin" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: aparine, Apiron, Asperen, asperin, aspern, Asperne, Aspertini, asperum, aspidin, aspirine, Asprilio, Asprin, gasperoni, Isparion, Nasirdin, nassirim. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Aspirin"

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "aspirin" (pronounced a"sprun)
4	-p r u n	apron.
3	-r u n	Baron, barren, brethren, Buran, cauldron, Chevron, children, citron, doctrine, fibrin, foreign, garron, giron, grandchildren, heron, intron, Marron, matron, octahedron, patron, perron, Philodendron, polyhedron, rhododendron, saffron, schoolchildren, siren, sovereign, sovran, squadron, stepchildren, tetrahedron, Warren.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Aspirin

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Direct Anagrams: rapinis.
	Words within the letters "a-i-i-n-p-r-s"
	-1 letter: raisin, rapini, sprain.
	-2 letters: airns, naris, nipas, pains, pairs, paris, pians, pinas, pirns, rains, ranis, sarin.
	-3 letters: ains, airn, airs, anis, inia, iris, naps, nipa, nips, nisi, pain, pair, pans, pars, pian, pias, pina, pins, pirn, rain, rani, raps, rasp, rias, rins, rips, sain, sari, snap, snip, span, spar, spin.
	-4 letters: ain, air, ais.
	Words containing the letters "a-i-i-n-p-r-s"
	+1 letter: aspiring, aspirins, hairpins, pairings, praising, rappinis.
	+2 letters: apiarians, apprising, miniparks, precisian, prosimian, rifampins, spiraling, spraining, traipsing, upraising.
	+3 letters: airmanship, aphorising, appraising, ascription, aspirating, aspiration, bipartisan, despairing, disparting, drainpipes, hairspring, inspirator, mainspring, misparsing, misparting, nonaspirin, partitions, patricians, polarising, practising, precisians, principals, privations, prosimians, puritanism, reptilians, saponifier, sapphirine, septenarii, spiralling, springtail, vaporising.
	+4 letters: airmanships, anisotropic, antiphrasis, antipyresis, antipyrines, apparitions, artisanship, ascriptions, aspirations, desipramine, disparaging, dispraising, dispreading, espaliering, expirations, frangipanis, hairsprings, imipramines, impairments, inspiration, inspirators, inspiratory, inspissator, interparish, iproniazids, lipreadings, mainsprings, marlinspike, misphrasing, nonaspirins, painkillers, parasailing, parishioner, parsimonies, paternities, patrimonies, patronising, pharyngitis, piperazines, plaistering, planarities, pleinairism, pleinairist, preinvasion, previsional, privatising, profanities, provincials, provisional, provitamins, prussianise, prussianize, puritanisms, respiration, rifampicins, saponifiers, springtails, stipendiary, suspiration, traineeship, transpiring, unspiritual, xiphisterna.
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.