nootrope
n.— «If you haven’t already heard the term nootrope, better jot it down. Chances are you’ll hear it a lot in the future. A marriage of the Greek words noos, for “mind,” and tropein, for “toward,” it refers to drugs that enhance mental performance—popularly known as smart drugs.» —“Can You Find Concentration in a Bottle?” by Unmesh Kher Time Jan. 16, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...
Asthenosphere, a geologist’s term for the molten layer beneath the earth’s crust, sparks a journey that stretches all the way from ancient Greece to the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Plus: What the heck is a dogberg? It’s when...