medicine

English Online Dictionary. What means medicine‎? What does medicine mean?

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/, /ˈmɛd.s(ɪ)n/
• (General American) enPR: medʹĭ-sĭn, IPA^(key): /ˈmɛd.ɪ.sɪn/
• (with the weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛdəs(ə)n/
• Hyphenation: me‧di‧cine
• Rhymes: -ɛdɪsɪn, (weak-vowel merger) -ɛdəsən

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.

   Synonym: medication

   Hypernym: drug

4. (broadly, countable) Any treatment or cure.
6. (uncountable) The study of the cause, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of disease or illness.

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

      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.
12. (obsolete) Black magic, superstition.
13. (obsolete) A philter or love potion.
14. (obsolete) A physician.
15. (slang) Recreational drugs, especially alcoholic drinks.

Synonyms

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

Hyponyms

• academic medicine (which entails clinical medicine, medical education, biomedical basic science, and biomedical applied science)
• clinical medicine (comprising all point of care activity)
• laboratory medicine (which entails many lab tests, such as most serology and most NAATs (e.g., most PCRs))
• By epistemologic categorization:
  • scientific medicine
    • evidence-based medicine
  • integrative medicine
    • alternative medicine
    • complementary medicine
    • traditional medicine
      • indigenous medicine
      • Ayurvedic medicine
      • traditional Chinese medicine
      • folk medicine

Meronyms

• oncology

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

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

1. (rare, obsolete) To treat with medicine.

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, →OCLC.
• “medicine”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Italian

Noun

medicine f

1. plural of medicina

Anagrams

• endemici

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

Spanish

Verb

medicine

1. inflection of medicinar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative