Oh Word?

I got 99 problems but etymology ain't one.

Today's word: MORPHINE!

"The Roman poet Ovid found a need for a new god while writing the poem Metamorphoses, a series of stories written by him a few years before his banishment in 8 A.D. This series is devoted largely to the adventures of the gods in their amatory pursuits of nymphs and the daughters of mortals. While writing, the poet's fancy took him into the realms of dreams, which he felt to be apart from sleep. There was a god of sleep, the Greek Somnus*...but there was no god of dreams. So, taking the Greek word morphe ("shape" or "form"), he coined the name Morpheus, whom he described as being the god of such dreams that include human shapes or forms. Later poets accepted the name as if there had actually been such a god among those of the Greeks or Romans."

- Thereby Hangs a Tale, c. 1950;
Charles Earle Funk, author

* insomniac, somnolent, etc!


I wanted to post this one in keeping with our recent G n' R theme; however,
the classic-ness of this one...