Is 'soporific' English, or is it actually Latin?

'Soporific' is a word borrowed from Latin 'soporificus'. The word entered the English language some time around 1665.

soporific [adjective] [1665]

• causing or tending to cause sleep
• tending to dull awareness or alertness
• of, relating to, or marked by sleepiness or lethargy

See 'soporific' on the Loan Words Map

See more loan words from Latin.

note: Soporific originates from the 17th-century French soporifique which comes from the Latin sopōrificus (causing sleep). It combines sopor (deep sleep) and -fic (from facereto make or do). Its roots trace back to the Proto-Indo-European root *swep- (to sleep) which is also the source of somnus (Latin for sleep) and hypnos (Greek for sleep).
Etymology: Probably from French 'soporifique' from Latin 'sopor' deep sleep; akin to Latin 'somnus' sleep

See more loan words from 1600s.