Seconal
English
Etymology
Blend of secondary + allyl; origin 1930s.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈsekəˌnɔl/, /ˈsekəˌnal/
Noun
Seconal (uncountable)
- (pharmacology) A barbiturate drug used as a sedative and hypnotic, a trade name of secobarbital.
- 1952 October 13, Richard L. Williams, “‘To sleep: perchance…’”, in Life, volume 33, number 15, page 110:
- Nearly every pharmaceutical house has its own brands, sold in tablets, solutions or brightly-colored capsules, on which its “detail men” keep doctors informed. Probably the most popular successors to Veronal are Seconal (“red birds” to the bootleg trade) and Nembutal (“yellow jackets”).
- 1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, New York: Ballantine, 1971, Chapter 29,
- In spite of the seconal he was eaten up by his nerves. His face was covered with sweat.
- 1969, Philip Roth, Portnoy’s Complaint, New York: Vintage, 1994, p. 104,
- Doctor, they can stand on the window ledge and threaten to splatter themselves on the pavement below, they can pile the Seconal to the ceiling—I may have to live for weeks and weeks on end in terror of these marriage-bent girls throwing themselves beneath the subway train, but I simply cannot, I simply will not, enter into a contract to sleep with just one woman for the rest of my days.
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Anagrams
- Canelos, Celanos, Escalon