purple heart
- noun
- /ˈpɜrpl hɑrt/
- NSFW
:
fenobarbital
- In the 1960s, some patients were prescribed purple heart to treat insomnia.
Examples
-
The therapist warned that misuse of purple heart could lead to addiction and severe health risks.
-
Regulations on purple heart have become much stricter due to its potential for abuse.
-
The doctor prescribed a purple heart for her anxiety.
-
Many patients experienced side effects from purple heart.
-
The doctor prescribed a purple heart to help her sleep through the night after a stressful week.
-
After taking a purple heart, he felt drowsy and drifted off to sleep within minutes.
-
She recalled how the purple heart would keep her calm during her long flights.
Synonyms
49
9.9
An old sedative drug once used to help people sleep
7
8.5
A long-lasting drug that calms people and helps stop seizures
1
4.9
A drug doctors give to make a person unconscious before surgery
1
9.9
A long acting drug that makes people sleepy and controls seizures
A strong sleeping medicine that makes people sleep
A strong medicine that makes people sleep and calms them
Surface Forms
Morphology
purple + heart
The drug sense of "purple heart" is a lexicalized name that cannot be derived from the literal meanings of 'purple' (a color) and 'heart' (an organ or metaphorical center). A B1 learner who knows the constituents would not predict a barbiturate meaning (and may instead think of the color or the military medal), so the expression is idiomatic and not compositional.
Etymology
The noun purple heart for a sleeping drug may come from the look of the pills: they were small, purple tablets often stamped with a heart shape. So the picture name purple heart came to mean 'a sleeping drug'.