# Do You Know What "Powders" Are? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 23, 2010, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555 "2010-03-23T23:58:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/41 "2010-03-24T14:16:48Z")
Yep, my dad always used powders. They make sense but I never caught the habit. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/42 "2010-03-24T15:22:25Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#): > > It’s generic here in the U.S. as well. Never heard of Aspirin as a brand name, though it might have been 150 years or so ago when it was first produced. Crap. I read **BigT’s** post backwards. I thought he was talking from an overseas perspective, now I realize he and I both were coming from a U.S. perspective. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/43 "2010-03-24T15:37:48Z")
Powders? Isn’t that what you take when you have a case of the vapors? eta: oops, I didn’t catch post #11 :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/44 "2010-03-24T15:40:46Z")
> [@Juliana](#): > > Yup. I keep a box of BC Powder in my desk. They’re fantastic when I feel a migraine coming on. And I take them straight: no liquid chaser. Me too! I actually enjoy them. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/45 "2010-03-24T15:40:48Z")
Never heard of these powders before…does one really take them by pouring them into one’s mouth? Do you just let them dissolve on your tongue, then? ---
**Author:** ![hellpaso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@hellpaso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hellpaso)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/46 "2010-03-24T15:51:47Z")
“Take a BC Powder and you come back strong!” ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/47 "2010-03-24T16:27:14Z")
> [@Neverender](#): > > In the UK you can get them made by Beechams that have a decongestant (I think) and possibly caffeine as well as the aspirin, for cold/flu relief. I’ve never seen them purely as aspirin though. I’ve got a packet of them here – they don’t have any decongestant, just 600mg Aspirin and 50mg Caffeine as active ingredients. Also lactose, maize starch, colloidal anhydrous silica, sodium lauryl sulphate, saccharin sodium, sodium cyclamate and “spice flavour” (cinnamon, if I’m any judge). > [@Tengu](#): > > Never heard of these powders before…does one really take them by pouring them into one’s mouth? Do you just let them dissolve on your tongue, then? I can’t speak for American powders, but I wouldn’t just pour Beechams Powders into my mouth. Even in a glass of water they don’t actually dissolve, just mix into a suspension. ---
**Author:** ![breaking-reality](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a8b319/32.png) [@breaking-reality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breaking-reality)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/48 "2010-03-24T16:55:47Z")
Yes, but only because I recently saw someone taking them and they explained to me what it was. Probably because I was giving her a strange look as she opened up a little packet of powder and poured it into her mouth. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/49 "2010-03-24T16:58:32Z")
I didn’t know until this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/50 "2010-03-24T17:04:19Z")
There is a passage in _All Quiet on the Western Front_ where the protagonist’s father has to work extra hours at his job to get money for his wife’s cancer operation. The father works eight hours, “takes a powder for his headache”, and then works another four hours. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Not\_Appearing\_on\_This\_Site](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@Sir\_Not\_Appearing\_on\_This\_Site](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Not_Appearing_on_This_Site)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/51 "2010-03-24T18:06:02Z")
I have never heard of that, I thought make-up, as in “powder-room” I wish I had heard of that stuff when I was kid. I couldn’t swallow pills, so we had to crush up ibuprofen and mix it in some juice for me to take it. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/52 "2010-03-24T18:19:24Z")
Yes, but I’m from the South and over 50. I’ve never taken a powder, though. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/53 "2010-03-24T18:22:03Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > … > So my questions is do you know what “powders” would mean, at least to an older person? I’d be fine if there was some context suggesting headache or other pain, but it just sounds really “old”, somehow. Actually, \*\*now \*\*that I know what powder is being discussed, it sounds pretty much the same as “Askit” powder in the U.K. which I think still exists. I would tend to think of it as an old-fashioned sort of thing, but there’s no real logic behind that. It’s probably just that I would rather take a generic aspirin tablet and throw it down with water than drink something that might taste nasty. However, if it’s the case that stuff in solution gets absorbed more quickly, so they might make a lot of sense. I think I still wouldn’t bother with the powders, if only because I know, with my luck and lack of planning, that if I took to carrying some emergency sachet of power in my handbag for a headache or similar, well, I would probably forget about it and I would end up with a messed-up sachet leaking white powder everywhere. Useless and suspicious-looking simultaneously. ☹ Slight tangent: several years ago, there were news report that some people were getting “addicted” to these Askit powders and would traipse around shops to make sure they got enough of them. It made no sense to me, but I suppose you can get psychologically addicted to anything. What the hell all that aspirin might have done to those people’s stomachs, though, I dread to think. ---
**Author:** ![maladroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@maladroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maladroit)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/54 "2010-03-24T18:24:50Z")
I’ve actually taken a Goody’s before, but aspirin is not the first thing I think of on hearing powders. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/55 "2010-03-24T18:39:28Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > There is a passage in _All Quiet on the Western Front_ where the protagonist’s father has to work extra hours at his job to get money for his wife’s cancer operation. The father works eight hours, “takes a powder for his headache”, and then works another four hours. I was about to post that I know what they are, but that I think it’s from literature. Something that I understood from the context, even though it wasn’t commonly used around me. I didn’t know that the term was still in use today. ---
**Author:** ![FloatyGimpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/floatygimpy/32/7750_2.png) [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/56 "2010-03-24T18:44:12Z")
> [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > To “take a powder” is an old idiom meaning to leave, or also to die. A quick Google shows early usage in the 1930s but I’m guessing it predates that to a time when medicine wasn’t mass manufactured in pill form. > > Since the term was associated with death it is reasonable to assume that often the powders were something stronger than aspirin. I’ve heard someone say “take a powder” in a movie or on tv but I thought it meant that you were sweaty and needed to use some talcum powder to dry off. Oh and I’ve a bag of homo in my fridge. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/57 "2010-03-24T18:53:03Z")
yes, but only here in the South. Although it was in Sparks, Nevada where I found a store where one could buy “a dose of salts.” (I waste a lot of time reading the labels of obscure nostrums. Asian grocery stores are a hoot.) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/58 "2010-03-24T23:35:02Z")
> [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > To “take a powder” is an old idiom meaning to leave, or also to die. A quick Google shows early usage in the 1930s but I’m guessing it predates that to a time when medicine wasn’t mass manufactured in pill form. > > Since the term was associated with death it is reasonable to assume that often the powders were something stronger than aspirin. When I was a boy in Georgia an advertising jingle sang “Tell your headache to take a powder”. So once I read the OP, yes I’ve heard of ‘powders’ in that context. Also, somewhere there was an old ('40s era) Superman cover showing a beleaguerd Superman taking some “Headache Powders” for relief. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/59 "2010-03-25T01:02:58Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > Coming up next on the Straight Dope: “Could you pick me up a bag of homo, eh?” Actually I’ve heard older people referring to “homogenized” milk, that way, so it was “Could you pick me up a gallon of homo?” ---
**Author:** ![FloatyGimpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/floatygimpy/32/7750_2.png) [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/60 "2010-03-25T01:07:58Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > Actually I’ve heard older people referring to “homogenized” milk, that way, so it was “Could you pick me up a gallon of homo?” But did it come in a bag? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555.md?page=4)