Something that makes you sad or depressed; a depressing event, person, or substance that brings down your mood or energy level.
From 'down,' meaning lower in position, mood, or energy, plus the agent suffix '-er.' The word gained popularity in the 1960s with the rise of drug culture, where 'downers' referred to depressant drugs like barbiturates.
The slang term 'downer' for depressant drugs came from the 1960s when drugs were being casually categorized by their effects—'uppers' and 'downers'—showing how vocabulary evolves when new social phenomena create new needs for quick descriptive terms.
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