apothecary

[skinem]

apoth·e·cary

Pronunciation: \ə-ˈpä-thə-ˌker-ē, -ˌke-rē\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural apoth·e·car·ies
Etymology: Middle English apothecarie, from Medieval Latin apothecarius, from Late Latin, shopkeeper, from Latin apotheca storehouse, from Greek apothēkē, from apotithenai to put away, from apo- + tithenai to put — more at do
Date: 14th century
1 : one who prepares and sells drugs or compounds for medicinal purposes
2 : pharmacy

phar·ma·cy

Pronunciation: \ˈfär-mə-sē\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural phar·ma·cies
Etymology: Late Latin pharmacia administration of drugs, from Greek pharmakeia, from pharmakeuein to administer drugs, from pharmakon magic charm, poison, drug
Date: 1651
1: the art, practice, or profession of preparing, preserving, compounding, and dispensing medical drugs
2 a: a place where medicines are compounded or dispensed b: drugstore
3: pharmacopoeia 2

I may be biased, but I do think the American term for "drug store" is more accurate; but, I'm curious. Why was it adopted here rather than apothecary? Or vice-versa?

[Perry]

In Italy and the UK drug stores are mostly called pharmacies (farmacia in Italian). The UK also uses chemists to describe pharmacists, but I don't know if the retail outlets would have a sign that says chemist.

Odd that we use drug store, what with the connotation of narcotics. Although any medicine could be callled a drug. In the United States, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act definition of "drug" includes "articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or other animals" and "articles (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals." Consistent with that definition, the U.S. separately defines narcotic drugs and controlled substances, which may include non-drugs, and explicitly excludes tobacco and alcoholic beverages.

[gailr]

I may be biased, but I do think the American term for "drug store" is more accurate; but, I'm curious. Why was it adopted here rather than apothecary? Or vice-versa?

I agree with Perry's evaluation of drugstore. Apothecary smacks of medievalism and superstition, while pharmacist reeks of science to the average ear. Rather silly, really, considering their etymologies.

-gailr

On my aromatherapy reference shelf is a comedy treasure: a modern apothecary's grimoire of sorts, published in 1958 for staid members of the American Medical Profession. It addresses, in appropriately pedantic language, a world history of the sorts of folk remedies now left in the dust of the email spam choking the information highway. [gr pauses to admire the turn of that phrase.] We have perused it with a mixture of hilarity and horror. Like glamour, they're just not making pharmaceutical "magic charms, poisons, drugs" like they used to...