Etymologically
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medicamentum

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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

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