• Sign up
  • Log in

@ English Question About The Word Painkiller: 質問です！

  •  
  • 499
  • 34
  • 2
  • English 
Jun 07th 2012 07:58
What a surprise!

I've totally misunderstood the meaning of the word "painkiller."

I have been using it casually and easily so far, like "Since I had a headache, I took a painkiller."


Yesterday, I learned from an American English teacher that a painkiller is a drug that is available only through prescription by doctors. I also learned that it's a potent drug used for serious(sever, acute) pain.

So, I wonder what you call the medicine to reduce your pain in English that you can buy at a drug store without a prescription and take by your own judgement?


You may say that you take Tylenol, which is the name of the article in the US, but we don't have it in Japan.




驚き！

”painkiller"　の意味を完全に誤解（ごかい）していました。

これまで、簡単に使っていました、例えば、「頭が痛かったので、”painkiller"を飲みました。」みたいに。


昨日、アメリカ人の英語の先生から、Painkiller　というのは、医者からの処方箋（しょほうせん）があるときだけ　入手（にゅうしゅ）できる薬だと教わりました。しかも、それはけっこう強い薬で重篤（じゅうとく）な痛みの時に使うということでした。

では、私たちが痛みを取り除くために飲んでいる薬、それも薬局（やっきょく）で処方箋なしで買って、自分の判断（はんだん）で飲める薬は　英語でなんと呼ぶんでしょうか？

アメリカには　商品名が Tylenol　という痛みどめがあるので、「Tylenolを飲む」と言うかもしれませんね。でも　日本にはそれがありませんので。



Lisavux
Jun 07th 2012 08:03
Everybody I know or have ever met uses the word painkiller as you have been using it. Painkillers can be prescription or OTC (over the counter). OTC drugs are drugs you can buy at the drug store without a prescription.
Jun 07th 2012 11:59 seraglyph
I agree.
Lisavuxに賛成です。
Jun 07th 2012 13:01 愛 mirai
Lisavux, and seragly,

Thank you for your comments!!!

Well, I don't know why the teacher taught us that...

Jun 07th 2012 13:35 seraglyph
Teacher quality may vary.
stiffymich
Jun 07th 2012 08:04
You were using the term "painkiller" correctly in my australian english opinion. A "painkiller" is the name for analgesic pain relief and something that is taken to stop pain of any degree. It is not only restricted to perscription drugs or for serious pain.

Panadol is a brand name but is used widely to refer to paracetamol which is used everywhere except the US (for some unknown reason) and asprin is another.

hope this helps
Jun 07th 2012 13:05 愛 mirai
stiffmich,

Thank you for answering to my question!

So, I can use the word "painkiller" for any pains of any degree.
Thank you for teaching this.

スパーク
Jun 07th 2012 08:06
I agree with you! I would use "painkiller" exactly as you have. In Canada, you could take a "painkiller" for a small headache. You don't need a prescription.

Maybe it depends on where you live?
Jun 07th 2012 13:08 愛 mirai
I have received the same opinion as yours from people from America, Australia and Canada so far.

hmmm...I don't know why the teacher said so.

Thank you for commenting on my entry!

(^^)
Esperance
Jun 07th 2012 08:15
I am in America and I have heard people use "painkiller" as you have. Where I live, it's more common to say "I had a headache so I took an aspirin" though. I feel like your teacher was being technically correct, but in everyday language and slang, painkiller is okay to use the way you have.
Jun 07th 2012 13:22 愛 mirai
Esperance, hello!

Thank you for your comment!

Now, I checked out what "aspirin" was. It was a good lesson for me.

Thank you for teaching this!

(^^)
krynn82
Jun 07th 2012 08:15
I think the word "painkiller" is a completely appropriate use for taking something like aspirin. You're right though, typically in America (actually this is quite common among many products here in America) we call it by one of the brand names, usually Tylenol. I think another good way to refer to it is by the actual medicine.

For example, aspirin and ibuprofen are both very common for headaches here. So we might say something like "I have a headache so I'm going to take some aspirin/ibuprofen."

For prescription medications, (I) typically say "prescription painkillers" or "prescription drugs" to imply that they're higher strength than what we would normally buy from a store.
Jun 07th 2012 13:31 愛 mirai
Krynn, Hello!

Thank you for teaching this!

I have often heard that people in western movies were saying that they took aspirin. So, I was wondering what aspirin was, and now I checked it.

We usually say 「痛みどめを飲んだ」, not saying the commercial names, except for some occasions like being asked about it. So I wondered what 痛みどめ　is in English.

Now that I can use the word painkiller for it as I have done, I am releived.

ありがとう。
tony
Thank you for your correction!
Jun 07th 2012 08:23
  • English Question About The Word "PainKiller" 質問です！

  • English Question About The Word "Painkiller" 質問です！

 
  • Yesterday, I learned from an American English teacher that a painkiller is a drug that is available only through prescription by doctors.

  • Yesterday, I learned from an American English teacher that a painkiller is a drug that is available only through prescription by doctors.

    I am also a US English speaker. Everyone I know uses the word painkiller to include aspirin, acetaminophen (Tylenol), and ibuprofen, which are all over-the-counter drugs (no prescription required). I think the teacher who told you this about the word "painkiller" is out of touch with how people actually use words.

 
  • I also learned that it's an acute drug for using serious pain.

  • I also learned that it's a potent drug used for serious/severe/acute pain.

    The word "acute" can be used to describe pain; "acute pain" is more or less equivalent to "severe pain." "Serious pain" is possible, but both "severe pain" and "acute pain" are better phrases.
    A drug can be called "strong", "potent" or "powerful."

 
  • So, I wonder how you call the medicine to reduce your pain in English that you can buy at a drug store without a prescription and take by your own judgement?

  • So, I wonder what you call the medicine to reduce your pain in English that you can buy at a drug store without a prescription and take by your own judgement?

    The phrase for any drug which can be bought without a prescription is "over the counter". The most common word for medicine to reduce pain is in fact "painkiller(s)".

 
  • You may say that you take Tylenol, which is the name of the article in the US, but we don't have it in Japan.

  • You may say that you take Tylenol, which is the name of the article in the US, but we don't have it in Japan.

    "Tylenol" is a brand name for a drug named acetaminophen; you probably do have it sold under some other name. Aspirin, acetaminophen and ibuprofen are the three most common painkillers.

 
Jun 07th 2012 09:15 愛 mirai
Tony san,

Thank you very much for teaching me various words and phrases!

While I was writing this, I tried to look for proper words though, I was not sure which word in my dictionary was good or the best in each sentence.

I learned a lot from your correcions!

ありがとうございます！

翔太
Jun 07th 2012 08:45
The only reason we refer to prescription meds as painkillers is because most of us can't pronounce the names. My peppermint, oil, i define as a pain-killer, as well as many people i've introduced it to.
Jun 07th 2012 13:33 愛 mirai
You (not you, plural (^^)）can't pronounce the names, let alone I can't! haha

Thank you for your comment!

Jun 09th 2012 03:21 翔太
Actually, if you know your Rs and Ls, it might be easier for you. The names are usually greek or latin in origin and have consistent pronunciation. The reason it's so hard for english speakers is because our vocabulary is made up of many different languages, so our vowels (and consonants, but mostly vowels) are VERY, VERY inconsistent.
Jun 09th 2012 07:53 愛 mirai

I envy you. Your tongue works really well for Rs, Ls and R+Ls as well!

（*^_^*）
Jun 09th 2012 08:57 翔太
It can work for you, too, once you get the practice. The hard part, though, is that pronunciation must be learned before vocabulary, because once vocabulary is learned, you invariably pronounce it the same way (which is why I've always prioritized accent and recordings over vocabulary).
Zarma
Jun 07th 2012 08:45
I use "painkiller" in the same way you do. Otherwise you could just say the brand of the pill- like, "I took an ibuprofen". But I would probably say painkiller first.
Jun 07th 2012 13:34 愛 mirai
Zarma, hello!

(^v^) /　　I got it!

It is easier for me to say painkiller than to pronounce the actual name! Good to know that!

Thank you!

randomdoodle
Jun 07th 2012 09:07
I agree with what everyone else is saying, your usage of painkiller is pretty much in line with the everyday person.
Jun 07th 2012 13:35 愛 mirai
randomdoodle,

Yes, I got it.

Thank you for coming by and commenting on it!

(^^)
seraglyph
Thank you for your correction!
Jun 07th 2012 12:03
  • You may say that you take Tylenol, which is the name of the article in the US, but we don't have it in Japan.

  • You may say that you take Tylenol, which is the name of the [article/medicine] in the US, but we don't have it in Japan.

 
Some people say "I took an aspirin" because it's a common ingredient in pills for headaches. "Tylenol" is used for headaches and other types of body pain. Some people just say the name of the brand. I take "Excedrin" for headaches. "I took a painkiller" is still okay I think. "I took some medicine" is also okay.
Jun 07th 2012 12:18 愛 mirai
Oh, I see!

I have heard of westerners saying that they took aspirin in movies. However, many people here have avoided taking it because of the news that told that aspirin overdose( I don't know how much)would cause serious side effects.
So, many choose medicine called 非ピリン系　painkillers.

Thank you for your suggestions in the sentence!!!

Jun 07th 2012 13:36 seraglyph
\ ^ ^
Jun 07th 2012 13:42 愛 mirai
seraglyph,

I'm sorry I got the wrong idea about aspirin.

I checked it and found my mistake.


The instruction of aspirin says:

「アスピリンはピリン系薬剤と誤解されていることが多い｡」

ピリン系　medicine has quite strong and dangerous side effects, but asprin is not one of them.

Many Japanese think that they are the same, because of the similar name of ピリン系　and アスピリン。

アスピリンは大丈夫でした！



Jun 07th 2012 13:54 seraglyph
I've taken aspirin for a long time. Excedrin has a combination of acetaminophen and aspirin in it. Tylenol mainly has acetaminophen in it, no aspirin. Excedrin kills my headaches faster than Tylenol. I've taken both brands for a long time without issues.
Jun 07th 2012 14:02 愛 mirai
Oh, I see!

(^v^) /
euanthus
Jun 07th 2012 15:12
We call regular over the counter medicine "pain relief medication" while stronger drugs are called "pain killers" although that is not strictly by definition. It just seems to be the convention. Also, many times the names of drugs are very familiar, so usually I will use the name.
"I took some Advil for my headache" or "I took some Ibuprofen for my pain."
Jun 07th 2012 15:35 愛 mirai
OH! This is the one that I wanted to know!

"pain relief medication"

Thank you for teaching this!!!


ありがとう！　 (^v^) /
Jun 09th 2012 06:48 tony
"Pain relief medication" is probably a more "correct" phrase for non-prescription drugs. However, the word "painkiller" is used MUCH more. If you do a Google search for "painkiller", you will get around 20 million (２億) hits. The corresponding number of hits for the phrase "pain relief medication" (one needs to put quotation marks around this so that Google doesn't just search for a page with the three separate words) produces only 200 thousand (20万) hits. So "painkiller" is used about 100 times as frequently. Granted, some of those uses are in fact for prescription drugs, and there are other reasons the numbers of Google hits is not an entirely dependable measurement. Still, the fact that the difference is so large does strongly suggest that "painkiller" is used most of the time.
Jun 09th 2012 21:57 euanthus
Thank you for your feedback. Did you see what those hits were? Many of them are for games, songs, and the like. In other words, they have nothing to do with actual medication. On TV ads, Advil, Tylenol, and similar brands never refer to themselves as painkillers. They use the term "pain relief," and as they are the experts (it IS their industry, after all) I will refer to their terminology.

"People often think that acetaminophen, a pain-relieving medicine"
http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/poison/acetaminophen-overdose/overview.html

If the New York Times uses the same terminology, I think it is ok. Doing a search on other New York Times articles, when talking about these products, they most often refer to them only by name, which again, agrees with what I wrote previously.
Jun 09th 2012 22:28 tony
I was just trying to reassure mirai-san that her usage of "painkiller(s)" was consistent with what many (I believe most, but I don't know this for sure) native English speakers say. I was not arguing with the fact that "pain-relieving medicine" is a more accurate phrase.
cuavsfan
Jun 12th 2012 10:40
I agree that "painkiller" can be used both ways. When I hear "painkiller" I think of something like aspirin, Advil, or Tylenol. When I hear "prescription painkiller" I think of something more serious that a doctor prescribes for a specific reason.

Also, people will often use the words aspirin, Advil, or Tylenol to refer to a non-prescription painkiller. Questions like "Do you have any aspirin?" are very common.
Jun 12th 2012 10:54 愛 mirai
Hi cuavsfan!

Thank you for teaching this!
I should memorize some phrases about it: prescription painkiller, painkiller and pain relief medication, right?

(^v^) /
x

Report this entry as spam

Spam entry

What a surprise! I've totally misunderstood the meaning of the word "painkiller." I have been using it casually and easily so far, like "Since I had a headache, I took a painkiller." Yesterday, I learned from an American English teacher that a painkiller is a drug that is available only


Author

愛 mirai


Reporter

0

Close Send