Etymologically
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pharmacy

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈfɑɹməsi/; /ˈfɑːməsi/ (UK)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English fermacie, borrowed from Old French farmacie (“a purgative”),[2][3][4] from Medieval Latin pharmacia,[2][3] from Ancient Greek φαρμακεία (pharmakeía, “the use of drugs; a medicine or poison”),[2][3][4] from φαρμακεύς (pharmakeús, “preparer of drugs, poisoner”), from φάρμακον (phármakon, “drug, poison, charm, spell”),[2][3] of uncertain origin;[2] Beekes considers it clearly Pre-Greek.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A medicine that purges the body of excess humours: about 1385, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, in Barnhart, the late 14th century in Etymonline;[2][3] the OED dates this sense to about 1386.[5]

Semantic evolution

The use or administration of drugs is from about 1400.[3][5][6] The art of preparing and dispensing medicines is from 1597 in the OED, the 1650s in Etymonline,[5][3] and a place where medicines are prepared or sold, a drugstore, is by 1833.[3][5] The ph- spelling was restored in French in the 16th century and in English in the 17th.[3] Pharmacist is from 1834, in Bulwer-Lytton's The Last Days of Pompeii.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1385 – fermacie, a medicine.[2]
  • c. 1400 – the use of drugs.[3][5]
  • 1597 – the art of preparing drugs.[5]
  • 1833 – a drugstore.[3][5]
  • 1834 – pharmacist.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A shop or dispensary where medicines are prepared and sold; a chemist or drugstore.
  2. The art or practice of preparing and dispensing drugs.

Word family

  • polypharmacy

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press