Etymologically
Log in

medicamen

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 19 October 2026 at 21:07. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [mɛ.dɪˈkaː.mɛn][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [me.diˈkaː.men][1]

Forms

medicāmen n (genitive medicāminis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin medicō (“to heal, treat”) + -men.[2][1][3] medicō belongs with medicus (“doctor”) and medeor (“to heal”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *med-ē- and Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to measure”).[4] He explains the meaning by a shift from "measure" through "judge" to "distribute a cure", and compares Ancient Greek μέδομαι (médomai, “to care for, think of”) and Old Irish midithir (“to measure, judge”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short find it only once in Cicero, who mocks a man for saying that he was usually treated with certain wine-laced remedies.[5][2]

Semantic evolution

It is any substance given or applied for its effect on the body: Ovid speaks of drugs that bring deep sleep.[2] Like medicāmentum and Ancient Greek φάρμακον (phármakon), it can be a healing remedy or a poison.[5] Lewis & Short call it mostly poetic and post-Augustan.[5] Ovid's poem on cosmetics uses it of face creams, Columella of a preparation for steeping seeds, and Lucan of a saffron hair dye.[2] Church Latin glosses it medicine.[6]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of remedies.[2][5][7]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of sleeping drugs and of cosmetics.[2][7]
  • 1st century AD – Columella of a treatment for seeds.[2][7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A drug, a substance with an effect on the body; also a poison.[2][5][1]
  2. A remedy, medicine; figuratively, a cure.[2][6][1]
  3. A cosmetic.[2][1]
  4. A preparation for treating seeds or plants, or for preserving or flavouring food.[2]
  5. A dye.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de