heroin
(ˈhɛrəʊɪn; formerly also hɪˈrəʊɪn)
[a. G. heroin, f. Gr. ἥρως hero; said to be so derived because of the inflation of the personality consequent upon taking the drug: see -ine5.]
A white crystalline alkaloid prepared from morphine by acetylation, which is administered usu. in the form of its hydrochloride as a hypnotic and analgesic (though many countries prohibit this medical use), and which is illictly used as a powerful and addictive drug producing intense euphoric sensations. Also attrib.
| 1898 Lancet 3 Dec. 1511/1 A new hypnotic, to which the name of ‘heroin’ has been given, has been tried in the medical clinic of Professor Gerhardt in Berlin. According to a communication made by Dr. Strube to the Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift it is a product of the di-acetic ester of morphia, and it was discovered by Professor Dreser, chief of the chemical department of the Elberfeld Farben Fabriken. 1908 Practitioner Apr. 436 Subcutaneous injections of morphia or heroin locally. 1910 Ibid. Apr. 542 A sedative may be prescribed... Heroin hydrochloride is the best drug for this purpose. 1920 A. B. Baxter Parts Men Play xviii, She..took to opium cigarettes, and then to heroin. She disappeared one night. 1955 Sci. News Let. 2 Apr. 219/2 Morphine and heroin, for example, do not give normal persons the ‘kick’ and pleasant sensations they are supposed to give. 1962 K. Orvis Damned & Destroyed iv. 30 One would be compelled to rush wildly off in search of heroin-relief. Ibid. xi. 76 A heroin-party. 1968 Lancet 7 Dec. 1239/2 The cost of treating heroin addiction is particularly great. 1968 Even. News 11 Dec. 13/1 The ‘erratic and unsatisfactory life’ of a 19-year-old heroin addict ended when he took a barbiturate overdose. 1969 Times 9 July 2/3 (headline) Heroin ‘black market’ in West End. Ibid. 2/4 Scotland Yard's Drug Squad..have been raiding premises..for a gang of heroin ‘pushers’. 1972 Listener 27 Jan. 125/3 The Marseilles-New York heroin traffic. |
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▸ heroin chic n. the glamorization of the culture surrounding heroin and its users; the style or look associated with this culture regarded or appropriated as fashion, esp. as characterized by the use of very thin, wan fashion models.
| 1986 Sunday Times 13 July 25/2 Keith Richard, Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton have been among the more celebrated victims of the myth of *heroin chic. 1996 Economist 20 July 44/2 The worry is over ‘heroin chic’, marked by new trends in fashion and films such as ‘Trainspotting’. 1998 I. Welsh Filth 115 She's not so much heroin chic as hospice chic, and looks somewhat less than resplendent in a gaudy yellow blouse and and an above-the-knee black skirt which looks like it's made from the same material as my flannels. 2005 Courier Mail (Queensland) (Nexis) 26 Aug. 5 Increasing numbers of designers are turning away from the heroin chic of years past to embrace a fuller-figured healthy model. |