Definition
nounA substance which specifically promotes healing when ingested or consumed in some way; a pharmaceutical drug.
nounAny treatment or cure.
Sentence Examples
I have to take medicine.
Have you taken your medicine yet?
Take this medicine in case you get sick.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Surely every medicine is an innovation; and he that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils […]"
— 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Innovation:
"The North American Indian boy usually took as his medicine the first animal of which he dreamed during the long and solitary fast that he observed at puberty."
— 1896, F. H. Giddings, The Principles of Sociology:
"If the rascal have not given me medicines to make me love him, I'll be hanged. It could not be else. I have drunk medicines."
— 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, II. ii. 18:
"I have seen a medicine / That's able to breathe life into a stone"
— 1598, William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well, II. i. 72:
"And we shall find, under the head of the medicining of the body, some things on the subject of medicine in general, which could be better said there than here, because of the wrath of professional dignitaries,- the eye of the 'basilisk,' was not perhaps quite so terrible in that quarter then, as it was in some others."
— 1857, Delia Bacon, The philosophy of the plays of Shakspere unfolded: