aspirin

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four words refer to medicine that eases pain, but they sit at different levels. 'Painkiller' is the broad everyday word — it covers any drug that reduces pain, whether bought at a shop or given by a doctor. 'Aspirin', 'ibuprofen', and 'paracetamol' (called 'acetaminophen' in American English) are three specific drugs you can usually buy without a prescription. Aspirin also thins the blood, so doctors prescribe a small daily dose for some heart patients — the others are not used this way. Ibuprofen is often chosen for swelling in muscles or joints, while paracetamol is the usual choice for children because it is gentler on the stomach. So you might say, 'I took a painkiller for my headache,' but at the chemist you would ask for the drug by name: 'Do you sell aspirin?'

Common collocations

Etymology

Coined in German as 'Aspirin' in 1899 by the Bayer drug company as a brand name for the new tablet they had developed two years earlier. The name was built from 'a-' for the acetyl chemical group added to the medicine, plus 'spir-' from 'Spiraea', the Latin name of the meadowsweet plant — an early natural source of the same active substance — and the ending '-in' that German chemists often used for drug names. After World War I, Bayer lost the trademark in many countries, and the word became the everyday name for the medicine itself.