Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Readily available in pharmacies; not requiring special preparation.
  • adjective Recognized by a pharmacopoeia.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to a shop or laboratory; used in a shop or laboratory. Especially
  • Of an apothecary's shop: applied in pharmacy to preparations made according to recognized prescriptions; specifically, prescribed in the pharmacopœia.
  • In botany, used in medicine or the arts.
  • noun A drug or medicine sold in an apothecary's shop; specifically, a drug prepared according to the pharmacopœia.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Obs. or R. Used in a shop, or belonging to it.
  • adjective (Pharm.) Kept in stock by apothecaries; -- said of such drugs and medicines as may be obtained without special preparation or compounding; not magistral.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Medicinal.
  • adjective obsolete, rare Used in a shop, or belonging to it.
  • adjective obsolete Kept in stock by apothecaries; said of such drugs and medicines as may be obtained without special preparation or compounding; not magistral.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Medieval Latin officīnālis, of a storeroom or workshop, from Latin officīna, workshop, alteration of opificīna, from opifex, opific-, workman : opus, work; see op- in Indo-European roots + facere, to do; see dhē- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French, from Latin officina a workshop, contracted from opificina, from opifex a workman; opus work + facere to make or do.

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