Apothecary


a druggist; a pharmacist.
a pharmacy or drugstore.
(especially in England and Ireland) a druggist licensed to prescribe medicine.
Historical Examples

Herr Seelenfromm, assistant to the apothecary Pflaum, had taught her.
The Goose Man Jacob Wassermann

What I like about Mr. Fleurant, my apothecary, is that his bills are always civil.
The Imaginary Invalid Molire

Luckily Jerome, through his old gathering for the apothecary, knew them all.
Jerome, A Poor Man Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

So that, if your little girl were old enough, you would give her to an apothecary?
The Imaginary Invalid Molire

From his boyhood Bass wanted to be a sailor, but was apprenticed, sorely against his will, to a Boston apothecary.
The Naval Pioneers of Australia and Walter Jeffery Louis Becke

Every man’s house is now not only his castle, but his apothecary shop.
Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 11, June 11, 1870 Various

During a large portion of his life he followed the profession of an apothecary.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 15, Slice 8 Various

He was the son of an apothecary of Rudkjobing, in the province of Larzeland.
The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 2, May, 1851 Various

He is, perhaps, the only person not an apothecary hereabouts.
Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters William Austen-Leigh and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh

And Peter went off to the apothecary for his pretexted drugs.
Captain Blood Rafael Sabatini

noun (pl) -caries
an archaic word for pharmacist
(law) a chemist licensed by the Society of Apothecaries of London to prescribe, prepare, and sell drugs
n.

mid-14c., “shopkeeper, especially one who stores, compounds, and sells medicaments,” from Old French apotecaire (13c., Modern French apothicaire), from Late Latin apothecarius “storekeeper,” from Latin apotheca “storehouse,” from Greek apotheke “barn, storehouse,” literally “a place where things are put away,” from apo- “away” (see apo-) + tithenai “to put,” from PIE root *dhe- “to put, to do” (see factitious). Same root produced French boutique and Spanish bodega. Cognate compounds produced Sanskrit apadha- “concealment,” Old Persian apadana- “palace.”

Drugs and herbs being among the chief items of non-perishable goods, the meaning narrowed 17c. to “druggist” (Apothecaries’ Company of London separated from the Grocers’ in 1617). Apothecaries formerly were notorious for “the assumed gravity and affectation of knowledge generally put on by the gentlemen of this profession, who are commonly as superficial in their learning as they are pedantic in their language” [Francis Grose, “A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue,” 1796]. Hence, Apothecary’s Latin, barbarously mangled, also known as Dog Latin.

apothecary a·poth·e·car·y (ə-pŏth’ĭ-kěr’ē)
n. pl. a·poth·e·car·ies
Abbr. ap.

One that prepares and sells drugs and other medicines; a pharmacist.

See pharmacy.

rendered in the margin and the Revised Version “perfumer,” in Ex. 30:25; 37:29; Eccl. 10:1. The holy oils and ointments were prepared by priests properly qualified for this office. The feminine plural form of the Hebrew word is rendered “confectionaries” in 1 Sam. 8:13.

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