Downers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A category of pharmaceuticals that suppress central nervous system functions to create a soothing experience
2. Medications that depress the central nervous system to induce calmness and reduce anxiety
3. Substances used to lower brain activity, creating relaxation and drowsiness

Etymology: "Downers" is the plural of "downer", a word formed in English from the adverb "down" and the agent suffix "-er". The sense of a depressing person or thing came first, and the drug sense grew out of it later, so the pharmacological meaning is a figurative extension rather than the word's original use. The root "down" traces back to Old English "dūne", meaning "hill" or "upland", which is the same word that gave us the hill-related "down" of the English landscape. Its later spatial and downward senses developed from the same base, so "down" has long been a word of position before it became a word of mood. The suffix "-er" is an old and productive English ending that turns a verb or adverb into a noun for a person or thing that does the action, so a "downer" is literally something that brings a person down. A related but uncertain possibility, sometimes suggested, links the slang "tanner" for sixpence, though this connection is not firmly established.

Synonyms: depressants, sedatives

Antonyms: uppers, stimulants