
How to make a hero: Opium and etymology - fremden
https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/hero-lee-child/
======
benbreen
From the article: _the first deliberate cultivation of the poppy, as opposed
to its casual collection, seems to have happened in Mesopotamia over 5,000
years ago, organized by the local Sumerians, who called their crop hul gil,
which translates as “the joy plant”._

At the risk of being pedantic, I wrote an entire post about how this is
completely wrong, tracing the origins of the error back to a confused
Victorian writer:

[https://resobscura.blogspot.com/2018/08/opium-or-cucumber-
de...](https://resobscura.blogspot.com/2018/08/opium-or-cucumber-debunking-
myth-about.html)

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Jun8
I was vexed but also oddly satisfied when he left off the question unanswered,
leaving off with a cliffhanger at the end, such an ornate thing to do in
current age of all-knowing Medium posts. I loved it, although then realized
it's a teaser for his book on the subject.

This article led me to look into the etymology, it is indeed obscure:
"According to tradition the word was coined with chemical suffix -ine (German
-in) + Greek hērōs "hero" because of the euphoric feeling the drug provides,
but no evidence for this seems to have been found so far"
([https://www.etymonline.com/word/heroin](https://www.etymonline.com/word/heroin))

Here's a great article on the history of opium and its use:
[https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/on-the-cultural-
history...](https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/on-the-cultural-history-of-
opium-and-how-poppy-came-to-afghanistan/). From here we learn that:

"Another sign that the opium poppy came late to Afghanistan is that there does
not seem to be an original Persian name for the plant. In Afghanistan, a
Turkic word – koknar – is used; kok mean “green” and nar means “pomegranate”
(anar in Persian), which may be an allusion to the poppy pod’s shape. Opium is
locally called taryak, which comes from the old Greek word theriac (7); in the
Middle East and south Asia, this word is used more widely than just for
opium."

In Turkey the word _afyon_ is used (there's even a province named after it
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afyonkarahisar#Etymology)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afyonkarahisar#Etymology\)))
which is from Arabic آفيون
([https://www.nisanyansozluk.com/?k=Afyon](https://www.nisanyansozluk.com/?k=Afyon)),
which itself was derived from the same Ancient Greek word that opium is
derived from: όπος.

Interestingly according to Wikipedia early use of in China was "to aid
masculinity, strengthen sperm and regain vigor"
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium#China](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium#China)),
understanding how/why a sedative was used as a Viagra-like purpose is beyond
me.

The Chinese word is 鴉片 which also is derived from opium
([https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%B4%89%E7%89%87](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%B4%89%E7%89%87)).
It's rare to see a words from around the world to refer to something that
ancient people knew to be derived from the same word.

~~~
grenoire
It's an extract from a book, I suppose the question is not the end of an
article but the beginning of a chapter.

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rdiddly
Isn't the -in suffix in German supposed to make a noun feminine? So like
'heroin' would actually be a 'heroine,' i.e. the thing whose spelling is often
confused for it in English? I dunno, my German is _schlecht_.

The thing about the "ba-ba-rians"... that sort of thing is everywhere. For
example Slavs, as a certain people's name for themselves, seems to be related
to the word "word" (slava or slova). They seem to be saying that a Slav is
someone who speaks our language, i.e. someone who speaks words instead of that
nonsense the others are always babbling!

~~~
microtherion
> Isn't the -in suffix in German supposed to make a noun feminine? So like
> 'heroin' would actually be a 'heroine,'

There is indeed a word "heroin" in German with that meaning, but it is
stressed on the "o", while the drug is stressed on the "i" (The feminizing
"-in" suffix is never stressed, while the "chemical" "-in" suffix is always
stressed).

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username321
"Words should be more like knives than pillows. Which is not to say they
should never change." They cut rather than cushion, but can dull over time?
What's your interpretation?

~~~
grenoire
I read the knife allusion to mean a tool of use, considering his stance made
clear earlier on.

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ginko
I thought it was relatively well known that heroin was named after the
'heroic' discovery of an opiate that wasn't addictive (or so they thought).

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username321
They cut rather than cushion, but can dull over time? What's your
interpretation?

