Miltown

English

Etymology

Named after Milltown, New Jersey.

Noun

Miltown (countable and uncountable, plural Miltowns)

1. (trademark, pharmacology) The drug meprobamate.

   Synonym: Equanil

   • 2013, Kate Bowler, Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 58:

     Bored with the emptiness of her life, she was said to be increasingly turning to the consolations of “mother's little helper”—new lines of tranquilizing drugs, such as Librium and Miltown, meant to soothe the female anxieties that Betty Friedan decried in her bestselling The Feminine Mystique.

   • 2017 August 7, “Miltown: a game-changing drug you've probably never heard of”, in CBC‎^[1]:

     Hollywood had discovered Miltown — and from then on, the pill became a cultural phenomenon.

   • 2019, Sarah Broughton, Brando's Bride, Parthian Books, →ISBN:

     There were, of course, ways of obtaining the drug which didn't involve doctors or pharmacies—from private parties to bars selling alcoholic blends such as the ‘Guided Missile’ (a double shot of vodka plus two Miltowns) and the perennially popular ‘Miltini’ (a dry martini with a pill replacing the olive).

Further reading

• meprobamate on Wikipedia.Wikipedia