medicament

See also: médicament

English

Etymology

From Middle English medicament, either from Middle French médicament or its etymon, Latin medicāmentum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛdɪkəmənt/, /məˈdɪkəmənt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

medicament (plural medicaments)

1. A medicine, medication or drug.
   • 1589, George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie, Book I, Chapter 23, “The forme of Poeticall lamentations,”^[1]

     Therefore of death and burials, of th’aduersities by warres, and of true loue lost or ill bestowed, are th’onely sorrowes that the noble Poets sought by their arte to remoue or appease, not with any medicament of a contrary temper, as the Galenistes vse to cure [contraria contrarijs] but as the Paracelsians, who cure [similia similibus] making one dolour to expell another, and in this case, one short sorrowing the remedie of a long and grieuous sorrow.

   • 1760, Richard Burn, “Physicians”, in Ecclesiastical Law‎^[2], 6th edition, volume III, London, published 1797, page 88:

     Forasmuch as the soul is far more precious than the body, we do prohibit under the pain of anathema, that no physician for the health of the body, shall prescribe to a sick person any thing which may prove perilous to the soul. But when it happens that he is called to a sick person, he shall first of all effectually persuade them to send for the physicians of the soul; that after the sick person hath taken care for his spiritual medicament, he may with better effect proceed to the cure of his body.

   • 1837, William H. Prescott, chapter 8, in History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic‎^[3], volume 1:

     The Saracens gave an entirely new face to pharmacy and chemistry. They introduced a great variety of salutary medicaments into Europe.

   • 1961, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas, Vintage International, published 2001, Part One, Chapter 4:

     The musty smell of old thatch was mingled with the smell of Mrs Tulsi’s medicaments: bay rum, soft candles, Canadian Healing Oil, ammonia.

   • 1986 February 17, Maurice Miller, Hansard‎^[4], archived from the original on 12 February 2019:

     Before any drug or medicament is loosed upon the public, it is essential for its toxicity to be tested. That testing involves animals, but not necessarily in the way that LD50 previously worked.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:pharmaceutical

Derived terms

• medicamental
• medicamentary
• medicamentation
• medicamentous

Anagrams

• minced meat

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin medicāmentum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [mə.ði.kəˈmen]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [mə.ði.kəˈment]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [me.ði.kaˈment]

Noun

medicament m (plural medicaments)

1. medicine

Further reading

• “medicament” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “medicament”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “medicament” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “medicament” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch medicament, from Middle French medicament, from Latin medicāmentum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌmeː.di.kaːˈmɛnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: me‧di‧ca‧ment
• Rhymes: -ɛnt

Noun

medicament n (plural medicamenten)

1. a medicament, a medicine [from early 17th c.]

   Synonyms: geneesmiddel, medicijn

Descendants

• → West Frisian: medikamint

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French médicament.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /me.di.kaˈment/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

medicament n (plural medicamente)

1. medicine, drug, medication

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	medicament	medicamentul		medicamente	medicamentele
genitive-dative	medicament	medicamentului		medicamente	medicamentelor
vocative	medicamentule			medicamentelor

Related terms

• medicamenta
• medicamentos

See also

• medicină