soma (n.)

name of an intoxicant used in ancient Vedic ritual, prepared from the juice of some East Indian plant, 1785, from Sanskrit soma, from PIE *seu- "juice," from root *seue- (2) "to take liquid" (see sup (v.2)). In "Brave New World" (1932), the name of a state-dispensed narcotic producing euphoria and hallucination.