psilocybin

See also: Psilocybin

English

Etymology

Borrowed from German Psilocybin (coined by Albert Hofmann), from translingual Psilocybe (“genus of mushroom”) +‎ -in.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌsʌɪ.lə(ʊ)ˈsʌɪ.bɪn/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌsɪ.ləˈsaɪ.bɪn/, /ˌsaɪ-/

Noun

psilocybin (countable and uncountable, plural psilocybins)

1. (biochemistry) A hallucinogenic alkaloid, C₁₂H₁₅N₂O·H₂PO₃, present in several species of Central American mushroom and producing effects similar to LSD. The prodrug of psilocin.
   • 2004, Martin Torgoff, Can't Find My Way Home […] , Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 70:

     The problem of the mushroom supply was solved straight away when Leary learned from a graduate student named George Litwin that a chemist at the Sandoz Corporation, Dr. Albert Hofmann, had recently synthesized the psychoactive molecule of the mushroom, calling it psilocybin.

   • 2019 January 29, Tom Bissell, “An Anti-Facebook Manifesto”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     It’s no stretch to posit that because human neurotransmitters respond to the platform’s iconic use of a certain shade of blue, and spark with dopamine upon receiving a “like” or “tag” notification, desperate children are now living in cages and a raving madman occupies the Oval Office. Not even Orwell, after a feast of psilocybin, could have predicted this dystopia.

Related terms

• psilocin
• Psilocybe semilanceata

Translations

hallucinogenic alkaloid

• Asturian: psilocibina f
• Catalan: psilocibina f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 裸蓋菇素／裸盖菇素

• Dutch: psilocybine (nl) f
• Finnish: psilosybiini (fi)
• French: psilocybine (fr) f
• Hungarian: pszilocibin (hu)
• Italian: psilocibina (it) f
• Polish: psylocybina f
• Russian: псилоциби́н (ru) m (psilocibín)
• Spanish: psilocibina f
• Swedish: psilocybin (sv) n
• Turkish: psilosibin
• Ukrainian: псилоци́бін m (psylocýbin)

See also

• magic mushroom

References

• “psilocybin”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “psilocybin”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.