Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The scientific study of medicinal drugs and their sources, preparation, and use.
- noun Substances used in the preparation of medicinal drugs.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Medicinal agencies collectively; the various remedial substances employed in medicine.
- noun That branch of medical science which treats of the various substances, natural and artificial, which are employed in the practice of medicine, and embraces an explanation of their nature and modes of action.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- Material or substance used in the composition of remedies; -- a general term for all substances used as curative agents in medicine.
- That branch of medical science which treats of the sources, nature and properties of all the substances that are employed for the cure of diseases, primarily with natural preparations, rather than pure or synthetic medicines; pharmacognosy.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun medicine the study of the
origin ,preparation ,dosage andadministration ofmedical drugs ; thesubstances so used
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the science or study of drugs: their preparation and properties and uses and effects
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[New Latin māteria medica (translation of Greek hulē iātrikē) : Latin māteria, material + Latin medica, feminine of medicus, medical.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Latin materia ("material") + medica, from medicus ("medical")
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Examples
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On the same kind of analogy, a German doctor has introduced hemlock and other poisons, as specifics, into the materia medica. —
chained_bear commented on the word materia medica
"...Oliver Wendell Holmes, the physician father of the Supreme Court justice, was not much overstating when he declared, 'I firmly believe that if the whole materia medica, as now used, could be sunk to the bottom of the sea, it would be all the better for mankind—and all the worse for fishes.'"
—John M. Barry, The Great Influenza (NY: Penguin Books, 2004), 31
February 11, 2009