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medicine

Etymology and origin of the English word medicine

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
before 1225
Borrowed from
Old French medecine via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin (medicus)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin medicina
English medicine

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈmed.sᵊn/, US /ˈmed.ɪ.sᵊn/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English medecine,[2][3] borrowed from Old French medecine (“medicine, art of healing, cure”),[4][2] and directly from Latin medicīna (“the healing art; a remedy”),[4][2] perhaps originally ars medicīna “the medical art”, from the feminine of medicīnus (“of a doctor”),[4][2][5] from medicus (“physician”),[4][2] from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to take appropriate measures”).[4] The OED finds the evidence for the ars medicīna path wanting and derives it directly from medicus.[4] Medicus is formed from medērī (“to heal”), first “to know the best course for”.[5] It is related to medical, remedy and medicate.[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A medicinal substance and the art of healing: probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle, according to Barnhart.[2] Etymonline dates it to about 1200 as medical treatment or cure.[4] The OED dates a substance used in treatment to before 1225, and the science of medicine to about 1320.[6]

Semantic evolution

Spiritual remedies were also called medicine,[4] and in the 14th and 15th centuries the word was often applied to Christ or the Virgin Mary.[6] It was used of drugs for purposes other than healing, such as the philosopher's stone of the alchemists, from about 1400.[6] The practice of treating disease in humans, as distinct from surgery, is from the mid-14th century.[4] From 1805 it rendered the words of North American Indians for magical power,[6] hence the medicine man, from 1801 in American English.[2] Take one's medicine is from 1865,[4][6] a dose of one's own medicine from 1894, and the medicine ball from 1889.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 1200 – healing; a remedy.[2][4]
  • c. 1320 – the science of medicine.[6]
  • c. 1384 – medicinal.[2]
  • c. 1400 – a drug for alchemy.[6]
  • 1801 – medicine man.[2]
  • 1865 – take one's medicine.[4]
  • 1889 – medicine ball.[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The science of diagnosing, treating and preventing disease.
  2. The branch of this science that treats by drugs and diet rather than surgery.
  3. The medical profession.
  4. A substance used to treat illness; a drug.
  5. Among some Native American peoples, an object or ritual believed to give supernatural power.

Word family

  • biomedicine
  • aeromedicine
  • antimedicine
  • ethnomedicine
  • geomedicine
  • telemedicine
  • medicine ball
  • medicine dance
  • medic
  • medical
  • medicament
  • medication
  • medicate
  • medicinal
  • remedy
  • meditate

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Medicine.” Etymologically, 15 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/medicine. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

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