pharmacopola

Forms

pharmacopōla m (genitive pharmacopōlae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek φαρμακοπώλης (pharmakopṓlēs, “seller of drugs”),^[2][3][4] a compound of φάρμακον (phármakon, “drug, charm”) and -πώλης (-pṓlēs, “seller”).^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato, in a speech that Gellius quotes, compares a talker to a drug-seller: “his words are listened to, but nobody entrusts himself to him” (verba audiuntur, verum se nemo committit).^[6][3][5]

Semantic evolution

It nearly always had a bad sense: the seller of medicines and potions was a byword for boasting, deceit and poisoning,^[2][6] and Cicero speaks of an itinerant one, pharmacopola circumforaneus.^[3] Horace names pharmacopolae in the first line of a satire.^[3] The TLL also records it of a woman.^[6]

Jerome uses the comparison with a drug-seller when answering the charge that he had translated Origen's books into Latin.^[6] Medieval glossaries explain it as a seller of medicines, with spellings such as formacopula.^[7]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato compares a talker to a drug-seller.^[6][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of an itinerant drug-seller.^[3][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace names drug-sellers in the first line of a satire.^[3][5]
• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses the comparison in his defence against Rufinus.^[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A seller of drugs and medicines, an apothecary, usually in a bad sense: a quack.^[2][3]

Usage notes

Beside pharmacopōla the Greek form pharmacopōlēs also occurs,^[2][6] and the spelling far- is found in Laberius and in an inscription.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press