Endorphin

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Grammarist

The word endorphin may not be as old as you think. We will examine the meaning of the word endorphin, where it came from and some examples of its use in sentences.

An endorphin is a hormone that has an analgesic effect, blocking pain and promoting feelings of well-being. Endorphins are produced by the nervous system, brain and pituitary gland. Endorphins are peptides that act on the body’s opiate receptors. Various things may trigger endorphins, including pain, exercise or even laughter. Endorphins were discovered in the 1970s. The word endorphin is a portmanteau of the words endogenous, which means growing within or having a cause stemming from within, and morphine, a narcotic derived from opium.  A portmanteau is a word that is composed by blending the sounds and the meaning of two different words.

Examples

Endorphins muffle your perception of pain and boost feelings of pleasure, creating a temporary but powerful sense of well-being. (The New Bern Sun-Journal)

The guitars were there only to trigger the effects, and it was at once muscular and geeky, lots of knob twiddling, bending over effects racks, or kneeling down, focused on the interaction of our sounds, going for that extended moment of intensity, where it gels, connects, everyone experiencing that intense high of combined adrenaline, endorphin and oxytocin. (The Amsterdam News)

The endorphin rush hypothesis always had a flaw, however, since beta-endorphin does not cross readily the blood-brain barrier. (The Guardian)

Endorphins, the hormone which quite simply makes us feel happiness and is ‘nature’s high’, are the key reason why swimming is so addictive; swimmers have an extraordinarily high number of endorphins running through their body after training and racing. (Swimming World Magazine)