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Origin and history of somniferous

somniferous(adj.)

"sleep-producing, causing or inducing slumber," c. 1600, with -ous + Latin somnifer, from somni- "sleep" (from PIE root *swep- "to sleep") + ferre "to bear, carry" (from PIE root *bher- (1) "to carry"). Century Dictionary (1891) has somnifacient. Bailey's dictionary (1721) has somnific.

also from c. 1600

Entries linking to somniferous

*bher-(1)

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to carry," also "to bear children."

It might form all or part of: Aberdeen; amphora; anaphora; aquifer; auriferous; bairn; barrow (n.1) "frame for carrying a load;" bear (v.); bearing; Berenice; bier; birth; bring; burden (n.1) "a load;" carboniferous; Christopher; chromatophore; circumference; confer; conference; conifer; cumber; cumbersome; defer (v.2) "yield;" differ; difference; differentiate; efferent; esophagus; euphoria; ferret; fertile; Foraminifera; forbear (v.); fossiliferous; furtive; indifferent; infer; Inverness; Lucifer; metaphor; odoriferous; offer; opprobrium; overbear; paraphernalia; periphery; pestiferous; pheromone; phoresy; phosphorus; Porifera; prefer; proffer; proliferation; pyrophoric; refer; reference; semaphore; somniferous; splendiferous; suffer; transfer; vociferate; vociferous.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit bharati "he carries, brings," bhrtih "a bringing, maintenance;" Avestan baraiti "carries;" Old Persian barantiy "they carry;" Armenian berem "I carry;" Greek pherein "to carry," pherne "dowry;" Latin ferre "to bear, carry," fors (genitive fortis) "chance, luck," perhaps fur "a thief;" Old Irish beru/berim "I catch, I bring forth," beirid "to carry;" Old Welsh beryt "to flow;" Gothic bairan "to carry;" Old English and Old High German beran, Old Norse bera "barrow;" Old Church Slavonic birati "to take;" Russian brat' "to take," bremya "a burden," beremennaya "pregnant."

-ous

word-forming element making adjectives from nouns, meaning "having, full of, having to do with, doing, inclined to," from Old French -ous, -eux, from Latin -osus (compare -ose (1)). In chemistry, "having a lower valence than forms expressed in -ic."

*swep-

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to sleep."

It might form all or part of: hypno-; hypnosis; hypnotic; hypnotism; insomnia; somni-; somnambulate; somniloquy; somnolence; somnolent; Somnus; sopor; soporific.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit svapnah, Avestan kvafna-, Greek hypnos, Latin somnus, Lithuanian sapnas, Old Church Slavonic sunu, Old Irish suan, Welsh hun "sleep;" Latin sopor "a deep sleep;" Old English swefn, Old Norse svefn "a dream."

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    soporific
    "tending to produce sleep," 1680s, from French soporifique (17c.), formed in French from Latin sopor (genitive soporis) "deep sleep" (from PIE root *swep- "to sleep"). As a noun, "substance or medication which induces sleep," from 1722. Earlier as an adjective was soporiferous (1
    poindexter
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    touch
    late 13c., "make deliberate physical contact with," from Old French tochier "to touch, hit, knock; mention, deal with" (11c., Modern French toucher), from Vulgar Latin *toccare "to knock, strike" as a bell (source also of Spanish tocar, Italian toccare), perhaps of imitative orig
    excruciate
    "to torture, torment, inflict very severe pain on," as if by crucifying, 1560s, from Latin excruciatus, past participle of excruciare "to torture, torment, rack, plague;" figuratively "to afflict, harass, vex, torment," from ex "out, out from; thoroughly" (see ex-) + cruciare "ca
    envy
    late 13c., from Old French envie "envy, jealousy, rivalry" (10c.), from Latin invidia "envy, jealousy" (source also of Spanish envidia, Portuguese inveja), from invidus "envious, having hatred or ill-will," from invidere "to envy, hate," earlier "look at (with malice), cast an ev
    arithmetic
    "art of computation, the most elementary branch of mathematics," mid-13c., arsmetike, from Old French arsmetique (12c.), from Latin arithmetica, from Greek arithmetikē (tekhnē) "(the) counting (art)," fem. of arithmetikos "of or for reckoning, arithmetical," from arithmos "number
    tangle
    mid-14c., tanglen, "encumber, enmesh, knit together confusedly," a shortening of entangle in some cases, in others probably a nasalized variant of tagilen "to involve in a difficult situation, entangle," from a Scandinavian source (compare dialectal Swedish taggla "to disorder,"
    creature
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    bias
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    sandwich
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