apothecary
UK /əˈpɒθəkəɹi/ · US /əˈpɑθəˌkɛəɹi/ noun
Forms apothecaries apothecarie appothecarie apothicarie apoticary ypothecar ypothegar pothecary potycary potycarye poticary poticarie pottecary potticary
- noun (archaic in US, dated in UK) Synonym of pharmacist: a person who sells medicine, especially (historical) one who made and sold their own medicines in the medieval or early modern eras.
- noun (archaic or historical) Synonym of pharmacy: an apothecary's shop, a drugstore.
- noun (uncommon) A glass jar of the sort once used for storing medicine.
Synonyms
pharmacist pharmacy druggist chemist pill pusher pill roller
Etymology
From Old French apotecaire (whence French apothicaire), from Medieval Latin apothēcārius (“storekeeper”), from Latin apothēca (“(originally) repository, storehouse, warehouse; (later) shop, store”) + -ārius (occupational suffix), from Ancient Greek ἀποθήκη (apothḗkē, “a repository, storehouse”), from ἀπό (apó, “away”) + τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put”), literally “a place where things are put away”.
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [OE. apotecarie, fr. LL. apothecarius, fr. L. apotheca storehouse, Gr. apo, fr. apothicaire, OF. apotecaire. See Thesis.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “apothecary”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details