pharmaceuticus

Forms

pharmaceuticus (feminine pharmaceutica, neuter pharmaceuticum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek φαρμακευτικός (pharmakeutikós, “concerning drugs”),^[2][3][1][4] from φάρμακον (phármakon, “remedy, drug, charm”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Celsus, in the preface to his work on medicine, reports that the Greeks gave this name to the second part of medicine, the one that heals with remedies.^[5] As a Latin word it is first found in Caelius Aurelianus, in his work on chronic diseases.^[2][5][4]

Semantic evolution

Isidore of Seville, listing the kinds of cure, names the diaetetic first and the pharmaceutic second.^[5] The word remained rare and technical, meaning “relating to remedies”.^[5][3]

Timeline

• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses it in his work on chronic diseases.^[2][5][4]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville names the pharmaceutic kind of cure.^[5][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Relating to drugs or remedies, pharmaceutical.^[2][3][6]

Related words

• pharmacia

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier