gallipot

English

Noun

gallipot (plural gallipots)

1. A small glazed earthenware jar once used by apothecaries for holding ointment and medicine

Usage notes

Also used in the phrase gallipot words, meaning “difficult words”, particularly used presumptuously, to give an appearance of being learned, from the use of such difficult words on apothecary jars.

(See Cobbett’s political register, Volume 11 edited by William Cobbett, 1807, page, and Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1811)

Compare inkhorn term (inkhorn).

See also

• apothecary's Latin
• talk like an apothecary