medicamento

Forms

medicamento m (plural medicamentos)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin medicāmentum (“drug, remedy”).^[2][3][4] The Latin noun is formed on medicō (“to heal, treat”) with the suffix -mentum.^[5][1][6] The verb belongs with medicus (“physician”), which the DCECH derives from medeor (“to care for, heal”).^[3]

The DTME records the word in 1250 in the Old Spanish form melezinamiento, and Wiktionary also traces the Spanish word to it.^[6][1] Old Spanish melezina, recorded in Berceo, was the popular form of medicina.^[3] Old Spanish also had megía “medicine, remedy”, in the Libro de Apolonio.^[3]

The Latin word also gave Catalan metjament and Old French megement, and was taken again as French médicament and Italian medicamento.^[7][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest example is in Estéfano de Sevilla's Visita y consejo de médicos, written before 1400, which forbids a Christian to take medicamjento from a Jew during an illness.^[10] The DCECH and the BDELC date the word to 1490, in Alfonso de Palencia's Latin–Spanish dictionary, where arteriaca are medicines good for the throat.^[3][11][10]

Semantic evolution

In 1498 the translation of Guy de Chauliac's surgery speaks of the generales medicamentos given by expert physicians, and 16th-century religious writers used it of spiritual remedies.^[10] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as any internal or external remedy given to a patient to recover health.^[12] The Academy's 1884 dictionary spoke of any substance, simple or compound, that has a curative effect on the body of a person or an animal.^[13] The DLE and the DTME now include prevention and the correction of after-effects, and the DTME gives droga as a synonym and notes that the word is often used loosely for fármaco.^[2][6]

Timeline

• 1250 – the DTME's record of the form melezinamiento.^[6]
• Before 1400 – medicamjento in Estéfano de Sevilla.^[10]
• 1490 – Palencia's Universal vocabulario, the DCECH's first record.^[3][11]
• 1493 – first text in the HSMS archive.^[14]
• 1498 – the Spanish translation of Guy de Chauliac's surgery.^[10]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from medicamentum.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A medicine, drug or medicament: a substance given inside or outside the body to prevent, cure or relieve a disease or its after-effects: Toma tres medicamentos distintos para la tensión.^{[2][15][16][1]}

Word family

• medicamentoso

Related words

• médico
• medicina
• medicar
• fármaco
• Latin medicāmentum

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. medicamento
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 11
4. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 412
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. medicamentum
6. ^ a b c d Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. medicamento
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. metjament
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. medicamentum
9. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 453
10. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. medicamento
11. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. médico
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 526
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 689
14. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. medicamento
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. medicamento
16. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. medicamento