lysergic

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English

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WOTD – 31 May 2018

Etymology

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The structural formula of lysergic acid

Blend of (hydro)lys(is) +‎ erg(ot) +‎ -ic (adjective-forming suffix).[1] Sense 2 (“psychedelic, trippy”) refers to the effects of taking the drug lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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lysergic (not generally comparable, comparative more lysergic, superlative most lysergic)

  1. (not comparable, organic chemistry) Used in the designation of lysergic acid and lysergic acid diethylamide: produced by hydrolysis from ergot. [from 1930s]
    • 1936, Thomas Lathrop Stedman, “ergostetrine”, in A Practical Medical Dictionary [...], 13th revised edition, Baltimore, Md.: William Wood and Company, →OCLC, page 368, column 2:
      Much more soluble in water than ergotoxine, ergotamine, sensibamine or ergoclavine, and is thought to be the hydroxyisopropylamide of lysergic acid.
    • 1937 August, Walter A[braham] Jacobs, R. Gordon Gould, Jr., “The Ergot Alkaloids: XII. The Synthesis of Substances Related to Lysergic Acid”, in The Journal of Biological Chemistry, volume 120, number 1, Baltimore, Md.: Published at Yale University for The Journal of Biological Chemistry, Inc. […], page 141:
      In a series of papers during the past few years Jacobs and [Lyman C.] Craig have shown that the ergot alkaloids are derivatives of a unique acid base, lysergic acid, in which the latter or an isomer is conjugated with certain amino acids or substances which can be derived from them, such as 2-aminopropanol-1, pyruvic acid, and isobutyrylformic acid. Since lysergic acid is thus the common characteristic constituent of these alkaloids, the determination of its structure became at once a major issue in the ergot alkaloid problem.
    • 1968, Charles Milton Fischer, The Effect of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide on the Carbohydrate Metabolism of the Brain (unpublished B.S. in Dentistry dissertation), San Francisco, Calif.: University of California, San Francisco, →OCLC, page 1:
      In 1938, while experimenting with derivatives of ergot, a Swiss chemist named Hoffman[sic – meaning [Albert] Hofmann] first produced the drug, Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, by adding a diethylamide group onto lysergic acid.
    • 1966 May 23, James L. Goddard (interviewee), The Narcotic Rehabilitation Act of 1966: Hearings before a Special Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-ninth Congress, Second Session, Pursuant to S. Res. 199 Eighty-ninth Congress and S. 2113, S. 2114, S. 2152 and LSD and Marihuana Use on College Campuses [...], Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 330:
      We have used lysergic acid which is available commercially, and we have found that the conversion of lysergic acid to LSD can be accomplished in a relatively simple manner by procedures that can be followed by experienced chemists. In fact, we believe a crude form of LSD could be produced by a college chemistry student who had access to the equipment in a college chemistry laboratory.
    • 2007, K. G. Ramawat, J. M. Merillon, editors, Biotechnology: Secondary Metabolites: Plants and Microbes, 2nd edition, Enfield, N.H.: Science Publishers; Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, →ISBN, page 375:
      The ergot alkaloids in general are classified into four main structural groups: 1. the simple amide group such as LSD and the methyl carbinolamide; 2. more complex peptide complex viz. ergotamine, where the lysergic acid moiety is linked with cyclic tri-pepide via an amide bond 3. lysergic acids and 4. clavine alkaloids […].
  2. (comparable) Psychedelic, trippy.
    • 2000 December 26, Scott Seward, “Snowplow you bad elephant!”, in The Village Voice‎[1], archived from the original on 31 January 2018:
      The Doves' mantras of desolation are even trippier than the first couple Cranes records (though maybe not as lysergic as prime Swans or Ravens), […]
    • 2010, Richard Henderson, Van Dyke Parks’ Song Cycle (33⅓ [series])‎[2], London: Continuum International Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 100:
      As mentioned earlier, my first impression of the sleeve art was that it bore marked similarity to a poetry collection – nothing very lysergic about that.
    • 2014 October 25, Marina O'Loughlin, “David Shrigley at Sketch, London W1 – restaurant review: ‘This might be the most absurd restaurant in the country. Is Jeff Koons cooking?’”, in The Guardian‎[3], London, archived from the original on 10 March 2017:
      On the evidence of this lysergic dish – blobs and pools of strident oddness, especially the mozzarella-topped gelée that tastes like the stuff left at the bottom of olive tins topped with organic foaming facewash – [David] Shrigley's better off sticking to the art.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “lysergic acid”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
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