Lucy

Definition

The drug LSD.

Etymology

From Middle English Lucy, from Old French Lucie (notably after the Christian martyr Lucia of Syracuse), from Latin Lucia (feminine of Lucius, a Roman praenomen), from lux (“light”). The name of the Australopithecus skeleton came from the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, which was being played repeatedly at the dig site camp at the time of the discovery. The slang term for LSD also derives from the song name, which many believe is essentially a reference to the drug.

Example Sentences

• "Picture yourself in a boat on a river/With tangerine trees and marmalade skies/Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly/A girl with kaleidoscope eyes/Cellophane flowers of yellow and green/Towering over your head/Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes/And she's gone/Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
• "The last time I made moocah, or dug sweet Lucy, was with Janis Joplin, who gave me one that must have been rolled by Montezuma himself. I saw my thoughts in clear letters, and they both felt and looked like a double strike on a coin […]."
• "Tanya shook her head slowly. 'We married to fill out the missing bits of ourselves. That doesn't have to be a bad reason. But you see, I'd been "in it". The contrast between that infernal blaze of feeling and keep-the-home-fires burning was just too much. It's why one mustn't start taking Lucy. Lucy was the current slang for LSD."