officinal
adjective
Did you know?
Officinal is a word applied in medicine to plants and herbs that are used in medicinal preparations. For most of the 19th century, it was the standard word used by the United States Pharmacopeia to refer to the drugs, chemicals, and medicinal preparations that they recognized, but by the 1870s it was replaced by official in this context. Despite this supersession, you still can find a healthy dose of officinal in the pharmaceutical field, where it is used today as a word describing preparations that are regularly kept in stock at pharmacies. Officinal was derived from the Medieval Latin noun officina, a word for the storeroom of a monastery in which provisions and medicines were kept. In Latin, officina means "workshop."
Synonyms
- curative
- healing
- medicinal
- remedial
- restorative
- therapeutic
Example Sentences
Word History
borrowed from New Latin officīnālis "used as a medicine (of plants)," from officīna "apothecary's shop" (going back to Latin, "workshop," contraction of opificīna, from opific-, opifex "craftsman, artificer" —from opi-, base of opis, *ops "power, ability" and oper-, opus "work, effort" + -fic-, -fex, derivative of facere "to make, do, bring about"— + -īna, suffix of place) + Latin -ālis -al entry 1 — more at opus, do entry 1
1769, in the meaning defined above
Medical Definition
officinal 1 of 2
adjective
ȯ- officinal
2 of 2noun
officinal
adjective
Synonyms & Similar Words
- medicinal
- curative
- therapeutic
- healing
- remedial
- restorative
- healthful
- sanative
- salubrious
- wholesome
- salutary
- alleviative
- tonic
- corrective
- healthy
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- noxious
- unwholesome
- injurious
- unhealthful
- poisonous
- unhealthy
- deleterious
- pernicious
- toxic
- infectious
- insalubrious
- noisome
- baneful
- adverse
- ill
- harmful
- baleful
- insanitary
- detrimental
- bad
- damaging
- hurtful
- unsanitary
- unhygienic