Dictionary

purple heart en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

From the color of the pills.

Meanings

1. The drug phenobarbitone when taken recreationally.
2. (historical, slang) A drinamyl tablet when taken recreationally, popular in the 1960s.
   • Detective Peter Goodall said the source of the tablets had not been traced. "Purple heart" or drinamyl tablets, were a stimulant drug and habit-forming. 1963 March 27, “Drug pills eaten like sweets, says detective”, in The Guardian:
   • And every penny she had / Was spent on purple hearts and cigarettes 1972, Ray Davies, “Big Black Smoke”, performed by The Kinks:
   • We were all coming down from taking purple hearts, the fashionable uppers of the period. 2012, Pete Townshend, Who I Am, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 245:

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