materia medica
noun
- noun (medicine, archaic or historical) Synonym of pharmacology, particularly its development in early modern Europe.
- noun (medicine, archaic or historical) Synonym of medicine: the substances so used, particularly traditional cures prepared from animals and plants such as herbal medicines but inclusive of early drugs.
Synonyms
pharmacology particularly its development in early modern Europe medicine pharmacological medicine
Etymology
From Latin māteria (“material”) + medica (“curative, medical”).
Webster’s 1913
- Material or substance used in the composition of remedies; --a general term for all substances used as curative agents in medicine.
- That branch of medical science which treats of the nature and properties of all the substances that are employed for the cure of diseases.
Etymology [L. See Matter, and Medical.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “materia medica”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details