nepenthe

American  

[ni-pen-thee] / nɪˈpɛn θi /

noun

1. a drug or drink, or the plant yielding it, mentioned by ancient writers as having the power to bring forgetfulness of sorrow or trouble.

2. anything inducing a pleasurable sensation of forgetfulness, especially of sorrow or trouble.

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nepenthe British  

/ nɪˈpɛnθɪ /

noun

1. a drug, or the plant providing it, that ancient writers referred to as a means of forgetting grief or trouble

2. anything that produces sleep, forgetfulness, or pleasurable dreaminess

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Other Word Forms

• nepenthean adjective

Etymology

Origin of nepenthe

First recorded in 1590–1600; from Latin nēpenthes, from Greek nēpenthés “herb for soothing,” noun use of neuter of nēpenthḗs “banishing pain,” equivalent to nē- “un-” (negative prefix) + pénth(os) “grief, pain, sorrow” + -ēs adjective suffix

Example Sentences

For thrill-loving tourists, for the great, near-great and notorious, Catalina had been nepenthe.

From Time Magazine Archive

And the search is more intense than ever for the Unspoiled Spot, where Those Who Know can get away from it all for a quiet taste of nepenthe with good food and a clean bed.

From Time Magazine Archive

Those lyrics, which act upon the mind like nepenthe, are also by Segal, a classics scholar who is driving without a poetic license.

From Time Magazine Archive

The other, beneath its bitter lash, becomes a human dynamo, plunging into the nepenthe of toil.

From The Lash by Lyman, Olin L.

In "Evangeline" Longfellow refers to it in this line: "Crown us with asphodel flowers, that are wet with the dews of nepenthe."

From Great Inventions and Discoveries by Piercy, Willis Duff

Related Words

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• painkiller
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