apothecary means 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. It carries an Arena rating of 1514, earned across 4 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, apothecary ranks #2,317 of 14,444 for Most Exacting Words, #2,374 of 14,451 for Most Whimsical Words, #2,678 of 14,410 for Most Ponderous Words, #2,737 of 14,445 for Most Beautiful Words.
apothecary is pronounced /əˈpɒθəkəɹi/.
Why “apothecary” is a great word
A person, especially historically, who prepared and sold medicines and drugs. From Middle English apotecaire, from Old French, from Medieval Latin apothecarius ("storekeeper"), from Latin apotheca ("repository, storehouse; later shop"), from Ancient Greek ἀποθήκη (apothḗkē, "a repository, storehouse"), from ἀπό (apó, "away") + τίθημι (títhēmi, "to put"), literally "a place where things are put away"; first attested in English in the 14th century. Unlike the clinical "pharmacist" or the quotidian "bodega"—which shares the same Latin root but not its purpose—the apothecary evokes an era of empirical craft, where remedy and mystery were compounded in equal measure. It is the amber gleam of tincture bottles, the patient grinding of a mortar against pestle, and the dim, wood-paneled shop where every jar held a promise and a peril—a testament to the ancient, intimate alchemy of healer and sufferer.
Etymology
From Old French apotecaire (whence French apothicaire), from Medieval Latin apothecarius (“storekeeper”), from Latin apotheca (“(originally) repository, storehouse, warehouse; (later) shop, store”), from Ancient Greek ἀποθήκη (apothḗkē, “a repository, storehouse”), from ἀπό (apó, “away”) + τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put”), literally “a place where things are put away”. Doublet of apotheke, boutique, and bodega.
noun
- 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.“[T]he poticaries and barbarus wryters call it [the iris] Irios in the genetiue caſe.”
- Synonym of pharmacy: an apothecary's shop, a drugstore.“The Russian people as a whole almost revered the apothecary, and they entered it as they would enter a sanctum.”
- A glass jar of the sort once used for storing medicine.
Words closest in meaning
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