Special K

English

Etymology

Initial of Kellogg Company. The drug was nicknamed humorously after the cereal, since it begins with the letter k.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Proper noun

Special K

1. A breakfast cereal made primarily from rice and wheat.
   • 1980, Stephen King, The Mist:

     He seemed better this morning; he had eaten two donuts and a bowl of Special K for breakfast.

Noun

Special K (uncountable)

1. (slang) Ketamine, used as a hallucinogen.
   • 1995, Harmony Korine, Kids, spoken by Fidget:

     Yeah, it's called the euphoric blockbuster and it's supposed to make Special K look weak.

   • 2008 October, Paul Scott, “Was the Prozac revolution all in our heads?”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 8, →ISSN, page 149:

     Ketamine, a powerful anesthetic that acts on an entirely different neurotransmitter system (and which has been ingested in rave clubs as Special K) was recently the subject of a glowing study by the National Institute of Mental Health.

   • 2013, Chuck Palahniuk, Doomed, page 58:

     The soul leaves the sedated body and is free to travel, according to the not-exact testimony of numerous drugged-out Special K abusers.

   • [2018 May 8, Moises Velasquez-Manoff, “Ketamine Stirs Up Hope—and Controversy—as a Depression Drug”, in Wired‎:

     Recreational users call it "special K," and the euphoric, hallucinatory experience it induces the "K-hole."]

Further reading

• Special K on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Special K (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia