- addict
- 1520s, adj., "delivered, devoted," from L. addictus, pp. of addicere "to deliver, award, yield, devote," from ad- "to" + dicere "say, declare" (see diction), but also "adjudge, allot." Modern sense is really self-addicted "to give over or award (oneself) to someone or some practice" (c.1600); specialization to narcotics dependency is from c.1910. The noun is first recorded 1909, in reference to morphine. Related: Addicted (1530s, "delivered over" by judicial sentence; modern meaning "dependent on a drug" from 1913); adj. addictive (1939 in the narcotics sense).