cocaine

Where does the word "cocaine" come from? It comes from Quechua kuka, passing through Spanish and German before entering English (1870s).

Cocaine’s story begins in Quechua: kuka meant “the coca plant.” Named the coca shrub whose leaves were chewed for stimulant effect. By 1570s, the word had taken hold in Spanish as coca. Spanish colonists taxed coca, which Andean miners chewed at Potosí. From there it passed into German as cocaine by 1856. Coined by chemist Albert Niemann, who isolated the alkaloid and added the scientific suffix '-ine'. It reached English by 1870s as cocaine. Isolated by Albert Niemann in 1859; Freud promoted it in the 1880s. Today, cocaine means a powerful and addictive stimulant drug derived from the coca plant.

1. Stage 1 · Quechua · pre-1500s kuka "the coca plant", named the coca shrub whose leaves were chewed for stimulant effect.
2. Stage 2 · Spanish · 1570s coca "the coca shrub", Spanish colonists taxed coca, which Andean miners chewed at Potosí.
3. Stage 3 · German · 1856 cocaine "the stimulant alkaloid isolated from coca leaves", coined by chemist Albert Niemann, who isolated the alkaloid and added the scientific suffix '-ine'.
4. Stage 4 · English · 1870s cocaine "an addictive stimulant drug derived from coca leaves", isolated by Albert Niemann in 1859; Freud promoted it in the 1880s.