Myth & LegendGreek → English
Atropine
/ˈætrəpiːn/noun
A drug from deadly nightshade that speeds the heart, dries secretions and widens the pupil.
The Greek roots
Ἄτροπος
Átropos
she who cannot be turned
Literally: “from the unturning one”
Follow a root:Ἄτροπος1 word
The story of the word
Linnaeus named deadly nightshade Atropa belladonna after Atropos, the Fate who cuts the thread of a life, since a handful of its berries will kill a child. The alkaloid was isolated in 1831 and kept the goddess's name. The belladonna half is a separate story: Italian women dropped the juice into their eyes to widen the pupils, and eye surgeons still use atropine for exactly that.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1830s
Same family
tropetropicalheliotropeentropy
In a sentence
Atropine went in through the line and the heart rate came up within a minute.
Nerve agent kits carry atropine for the same reason farmers carry it near organophosphates.