dispensary

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin dispensārium, the neuter of the adjective dispensārius used as a noun,^[2][3][4] although Etymonline takes it from the same word used as a masculine noun, one who dispenses,^[5] and Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com from dispēnsāria (“storeroom, pantry”).^[6][7] The OED notes that the medieval Latin adjective is recorded as a noun meaning a dispenser in 1290, and compares French dispensaire, which Cotgrave (1611) glossed as a book teaching how to make medicines.^[4] The base is dispēnsō (“to distribute, disburse, weigh out”),^[5][8] a frequentative of dispendō (“to weigh out, pay out”), formed from dis- (“out, apart”) and pendō (“to hang; to weigh; to pay”),^[5][8] from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pen- (“to draw, stretch, spin”).^[5][8] The Latin verb is also the source of dispense.^[5][8] Klein glosses the English word as properly a place where medicines are weighed out.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A place, room or shop in which medicines are dispensed: 1699, in the preface to the second edition of Garth's Dispensary.^[4][6] Etymonline dates it to the 1690s.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word was used especially of a charitable institution where medicines and medical advice were given to the poor free or for a small charge.^[4][5] In the 18th century it also meant a collection of the drugs found in an apothecary's shop (1710, in Steele's Tatler, until 1768) and a book of formulas for making up medicines, a pharmacopoeia (1721–25).^[4][3] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as the place where medicines are dispensed, quoting Garth.^[10] In some southern American states, such as South Carolina, a dispensary was a liquor store run under a dispensary law, where drink was sold but could not be consumed on the premises.^[6] In Ireland the word was used for a place where medicines were dispensed, a function later merged into health centres.^[11]

Timeline

• 1699 – a place, room or shop where medicines are dispensed.^[4][6]
• 1710 – a collection of the drugs in an apothecary's shop (obsolete by 1768).^[4][3]
• 1721 – a book of formulas for medicines, a pharmacopoeia (obsolete).^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A room or place, as in a hospital, school or workplace, where medicines are prepared and given out.^[12][6][4]
2. A public or charitable clinic that gives medicines and medical advice, originally to the poor, free or for a small charge.^[4][5][3]
3. In some southern US states, a state-run liquor store that sells drink to be consumed elsewhere.^[6]
4. (obsolete, 1710–1768) A collection of the drugs kept by an apothecary.^[4][3]

Related words

• dispense
• dispensatory
• dispensation
• dispenser

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Dolan, Terence Patrick (2004), A Dictionary of Hiberno-English: The Irish Use of English, 2nd ed., Dublin: Gill & Macmillan
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins