A drug that makes you sleepy, numb to pain, or unconscious, often addictive.
From Greek narkotikos (numbing), from narke (numbness). The term entered medical English in the 1600s to describe substances that induce sleep or insensibility.
The ancient Greeks called the electric ray 'narke' because it numbs your hand when touched—the same root gave us narcotic, narcissus (the flower that droops the head), and narcissism (self-absorbed numbness to others).
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