Etymology of Letheon Nineteenth-century Linguistic Effervescence

In late 1846, following his successful public demonstrations of surgical anesthesia, Boston dentist William T. G. Morton selectedLetheon as the commercial name for the ether-based “preparation” he had used to produce insensibility to pain. We have not identified a first-hand account of the coinage ofLetheon. Although the name ultimately derives from the GreekL ēthē, the adjectiveLethean, much in use in the mid-19th century, may have influenced Morton and those he called on to assist in finding a commercial name. By one unverified account, the nameLetheon might have been coined independently by both Augustus Addison Gould, M.D., and Henry Jacob Bigelow, M.D.
Source: Anesthesiology - Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: research