medicamentum

Forms

medicāmentum n (genitive medicāmentī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin medicō (“to heal”) + -mentum, a noun of means, “that by which one heals”.^[2][1][3] The verb medicō belongs with medeor (“to heal”),^[4] which goes back to Proto-Italic *med-ē- and Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to measure”), with a shift from “measure” to “give a cure”.^[4] Cognate with Old Irish midithir (“measures, judges”), Ancient Greek μέδομαι (médomai, “to care for”) and Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (mitan, “to measure”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^[4][5] who tells how Medea made old Pelias young again with a drug and her poisons.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is any drug given for its effect on the body, and with a genitive a drug that produces something, as Seneca's “drug of immortality”.^[2] Cato uses it of a remedy for oxen, and Cicero figuratively of money as Verres' cure-all.^[2] Malum medicamentum is a poison, as in the elder Seneca.^[2] It is also a cosmetic, in Fronto, a preparation for plants, land or wine, as Columella's oil dregs that kill worms in trees, and a dye, in Seneca.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “drug, remedy, medicine”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of Medea's drug.^[2][4][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato of a remedy for oxen.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of money as a cure-all.^[2][5]
• 1st century AD – Columella of a preparation for trees.^[2][5]
• mid-15th century – Borrowed into English as medicament, partly through Old French.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A drug, medicament.^[2][7][1]
2. A remedy, medicine.^[2][7][1]
3. malum medicamentum, a poison.^[2]
4. A cosmetic.^[2]
5. A preparation for treating plants, land or wine; a dye.^[2]

Word family

• medicāmentārius
• medicāmentōsus

Related words

• medeor
• medicus
• English medicament

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press