morphine

Term: morphine

Origin An Greek

μορφίνη/morphine 
> Mορφέας/Morpheus (=the son of Sleep, and the god of dreams).  

Coined/History
Morpheus shaped or formed the dreams which appeared to the sleeper. (Ov. Met. xi. 635.). Morpheus brings prophetic dreams from the Gods to Kings, heroes and those in power. He is also the the nephew of Thanatos, the God of Death. The name of the drug derived from the tendency of users to sleep. The opium poppy was cultivated in Mesopotamia as long ago as 3400 BCE.  The morphine was discovered as an plant alcaloid extracted from the opium poppy in 1804 by pharmacist Friedrich Serturner(1783-1841). It was marketed to the general public, erroneously) as analgesic and also as a treatment for alcohol or opium addiction until heroin (diacetylomorphine) was synthesized and came into use as a treatment for morphine addiction (1874). The structural form of morphine was determined by 1925.  : was coined by German apothecary Adolf Serturner (1783-1841) while working as a pharmacist's apprentice in 1805.

 Definition:

Morphine is a narcotic agent with strong analgesic action on the central nervous system produced from the seed pods of the poppy plant.

Comments:

Ovid the Poet wrote in his Metamorphosis for Morpheus:

“King Sleep was father of a thousand sons – indeed a tribe – and of them all, the one he chose was Morpheus, who had such skill in miming any human form at will. No other Dream (Oneiro, Morpheus’ brother)  can match his artistry in counterfeiting men: their voice, their gait, their face – their moods; and, too, he imitates their dress precisely and the words they use most frequently. But he mimes only men…”