nepenthe
Americannoun
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a drug or drink, or the plant yielding it, mentioned by ancient writers as having the power to bring forgetfulness of sorrow or trouble.
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anything inducing a pleasurable sensation of forgetfulness, especially of sorrow or trouble.
noun
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a drug, or the plant providing it, that ancient writers referred to as a means of forgetting grief or trouble
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anything that produces sleep, forgetfulness, or pleasurable dreaminess
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
And she poured from a golden urn, into a cup of the same metal, the sombre-colored beverage which she had mingled with the soporiferous juice of the nepenthe.
From One of Cleopatra's Nights and Other Fantastic Romances One of Cleopatra's Nights?Clarimonde?Arria Marcella?The Mummy's Foot?Omphale: a Rococo Story?King Candaules by Gautier, Th?ophile
No wonder Shakespeare treats reverently every "superstition," every anodyne and nepenthe offered to the inmates of this House of the Incurable.
From Visions and Revisions A Book of Literary Devotions by Powys, John Cowper
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
