copium

Blend of cope +‎ opium. First cited usage points back to the album entitled Copium released by American rapper Keak da Sneak in 2003. Surface analysis also yields a connotation of cope +‎ -ium, where -ium is an ending typical of names for atomic elements. The construction is similar to that of unobtainium, a fictional substance that is extremely hard to get.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkoʊp.i.əm/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkəʊp.i.əm/
• Rhymes: -əʊpiəm

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

copium (uncountable)

1. (Internet slang, neologism, derogatory, humorous) A fictional or metaphorical opiate taken in order to cope when one is faced with loss. The humorous implication is that copium gives energy to denial in those that consume it.
   • 2003 June 17, Keak da Sneak, Copium
   • 2020 November 4, Gita Jackson, “Coping MAGA Tweets Are Funny, But We Need to Move Beyond 4chan Culture”, in Vice‎:

     If the image of Democratic defeat is of that protester screaming no, the image of MAGA humiliation is of Pepe the Frog or Trump himself hooked up to an oxygen machine that's instead providing him with copium, watching the rare and humiliating end of a one-term president.

   • 2020 December 21, Jason Wilson, “Sky News Australia is increasingly pushing conspiracy theories to a global audience online”, in The Guardian‎:

     Some of this is simply dead ender-claptrap: straw-grasping and copium for Trumpists who are struggling to assimilate the new reality.

   • 2021 November 14, Hannah Worthy, “League Of Legends: Why I Don’t Care If Europe Never Wins Worlds”, in The Oxford Student‎:

     Despite this, every year European and North American fans turn up to tournaments in droves, bursting with ‘copium’ and ‘hopium’, and leading the charge on twitter with unrelenting boldness in their predictions and claims.

   • 2022 January 23, Gabriel M. Lezama, “The Joys of Copium”, in NOISE‎, volume 66, number 4, TheSpectrum:

• hopium