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HERO-IN

7/15/2018

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Today someone asked me about the etymology of heroine. Turns out it was originally a trademark by the Friedrich Bayer Company, which registered the term in 1898 for their hot-selling morphine product. But where does this come from? Well, there's the obvious suffix -ine, which is a word-forming affix in chemistry, and hero- is exactly what it seems: through German, it comes from the Greek word heros, meaning "hero" (and also the root of our modern words heroine​ and hero). This might seem weird, but the connection actually makes quite a bit of sense, as the word is linked to the increased feelings of self-esteem you supposedly get from being high on heroin. Greek heros is of undetermined origin, but some etymologists have reconstructed it to the Proto-Indo-European root ser, meaning "to protect". Because real heroes and heroines protect you from heroin.
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    Hello! I'm Adam Aleksic, a senior studying government and linguistics at Harvard University, where I co-founded the Harvard Undergraduate Linguistics Society. In addition to etymology, I also really enjoy trivia, politics, vexillology, geography, board games, conlanging, art history, and law. 
      If I don't cover it soon, I probably already did it
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