Etymograph

English

soporific

Soporific comes from Latin sopor ‘deep sleep’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *swep-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*swep-‘to sleep’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*swepōsreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsopor‘deep sleep’
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentsoporifique
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1749soporific

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*swep-‘to sleep’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*swepōsreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsopor‘deep sleep’
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentsoporifique
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1749soporific

Earliest quotation: 1749, Henry Fielding, London: A[ndrew] Millar: “For we are not here to understand, as perhaps…”

The story

Unrelated to stupor (distinct in Proto-Indo-European).

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *swep- ‘to sleep’

insomnia, hypnosis, hypnotic, 19 more

Today it means

noun Something inducing sleep, especially a drug.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *swep- / soporific

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