medicine

English

Alternative forms

• medicin (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English medicin, from Middle French medicine, from Old French medecine, from Latin medicīna (“the healing art, medicine, a physician's shop, a remedy, medicine”), feminine of medicīnus (“of or belonging to physic or surgery, or to a physician or surgeon”), from medicus (“a physician, surgeon”).

The extended sense of "Indigenous magic" is a calque of Ojibwe mashkiki (“medicine”) or mide (or cognates in related languages) when used in compounds such as Grand Medicine Society, medicine lodge, medicine dance, medicine bag, medicine wheel, medicine man, Medicine Line, and bad medicine or place names such as Medicine Hat, Medicine Creek, etc.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ˈmed-sǐn, ˈmed-sn, IPA^(key): /ˈmɛd(ɪ)s(ɪ)n/, /ˈmɛds(ɪ)n/

• Audio (RP)

  (file)

• (General American) enPR: ˈmed-ĭ-sĭn, IPA^(key): /ˈmɛdɪsɪn/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• (Weak-vowel merger) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛdəs(ə)n/
• Rhymes: -ɛd(ɪ)s(ɪ)n, -ɛdəs(ə)n
• Hyphenation: me‧di‧cine

Noun

medicine (countable and uncountable, plural medicines)

2. (uncountable, countable) A substance which specifically promotes healing when ingested or consumed in some way; a pharmaceutical drug.

   This medicine has fewer adverse effects than others in its drug class.

   Using a weekly pill organizer is a good way to help remind yourself to take your medicine each day, and it also tells you whether you already took today's pills (it's not unusual to forget doing a habitual task)!

   Synonym: medication

   Hypernym: drug

4. (broadly, countable) Any treatment or cure.

   A legislative remedy might be some harsh medicine; is that cure worse than the ill?

   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Innovation

     Surely every medicine is an innovation; and he that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils […]

6. (uncountable) The study of the cause, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of disease or illness.

   She's studying medicine at university because she wants to be a doctor in the future.

8. (uncountable) The profession and practice of physicians, including surgeons.

   The history of medicine can be discretized into eras with differing relationships between physicians and surgeons

   Hypernyms: health care, healthcare

   Hyponym: surgery

   2. (mainly historical, uncountable) The profession and practice of nonsurgical physicians as sometimes distinguished from that of surgeons.

      the evolving relationship of medicine to surgery in the nineteenth century

      Coordinate term: surgery

10. (uncountable) Ritual magic used, as by a medicine man, to promote a desired outcome in healing, hunting, or warfare; traditional medicine.
11. Among the Native Americans, any object supposed to give control over natural or magical forces, to act as a protective charm, or to cause healing.
    • 1896, F. H. Giddings, The Principles of Sociology:

      The North American Indian boy usually took as his medicine the first animal of which he dreamed during the long and solitary fast that he observed at puberty.

12. (obsolete) Black magic, superstition.
13. (obsolete) A philter or love potion.
    • 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, II. ii. 18:

      If the rascal have not given me medicines to make me love him, I'll be hanged. It could not be else. I have drunk medicines.

14. (obsolete) A physician.
    • 1598, William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well, II. i. 72:

      I have seen a medicine / That's able to breathe life into a stone

15. (slang) Recreational drugs, especially alcoholic drinks.

Synonyms

• (substance): drug, prescription, pharmaceutical, elixir
• (treatment): regimen, course, program, prescription
• See also Thesaurus:medicine
• See also Thesaurus:pharmaceutical

Derived terms

• auriculomedicine
• Ayurvedic medicine
• clinical medicine
• Edison's medicine
• energy medicine
• evidence-based medicine
• folk medicine
• forced medicine
• hallway medicine
• indigenous medicine
• medicine ball
• medicine dance
• Medicine Hat
• Medicine Line
• Medicine Lodge
• medicine man
• medicine show
• organized medicine
• take one's medicine
• taste of one's own medicine
• traditional medicine
• Yellow Medicine County

 

Related terms

• medic
• medical
• medicament
• medicate
• medication
• medicinal
• postmedication
• premedication

 

Translations

See medicine/translations § Noun.

Verb

medicine (third-person singular simple present medicines, present participle medicining, simple past and past participle medicined)

1. (rare, obsolete) To treat with medicine.
   • 1857, Delia Bacon, The philosophy of the plays of Shakspere unfolded:

     And we shall find, under the head of the medicining of the body, some things on the subject of medicine in general, which could be better said there than here, because of the wrath of professional dignitaries,- the eye of the 'basilisk,' was not perhaps quite so terrible in that quarter then, as it was in some others.

See also

• therapy
• panacea

References

• Prescription Desk Reference, Prescription Drug Information:
• “medicine” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "medicine" in the Merriam-Webster On-line dictionary
• "medicine" in the Hutchinson Encyclopaedia, Helicon Publishing LTD 2007.
• “medicine” in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• medicine at OneLook Dictionary Search

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Italian

Noun

medicine f

1. plural of medicina

Anagrams

• endemici

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Middle French

Etymology

From Old French medecine, with the i added back to reflect the original Latin medicīna.

Noun

medicine f (plural medicines)

1. medicine (act of practising medical treatment)

Descendants

• French: médecine

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Spanish

Verb

medicine

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of medicinar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of medicinar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of medicinar.
4. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of medicinar.