apothecary's shop
- noun
- /əˈpɑːθɪˌkɛri z ʃɑːp/
- Archaic
:
botica
- In the past, many people relied on the apothecary's shop for remedies and local herbs.
Examples
-
When I needed relief from my cough, I visited the apothecary's shop down the street.
-
He leaped over a pile of steaming manure and an overflowing gutter, and strode along the pavement until he should see an apothecary's shop.
Fiction book (1993) -
The apothecary's shop was filled with jars of colorful potions and drying herbs.
Synonyms
141
2.3
A shop that sells medicines and other health items
103
1.0
A shop that sells medicine and everyday items like soap and snacks
6
4.7
A place in a hospital or clinic where staff prepare and give out medicines to patients
2
7.9
A shop that sells medicines and natural health products
1
1.9
A shop that sells medicines and other health items like toiletries
1
8.1
A shop that sells medicines and fills prescriptions
A shop where you buy medicines and other health items
Surface Forms
Morphology
apothecary's + shop
The meaning is directly compositional: 'apothecary' (a person who prepares/sells medicines) + 'shop' (a place where goods are sold) yields 'a shop belonging to an apothecary' which matches the listed definition. This possessive noun + shop pattern is common and predictable across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Apothecary's shop comes from old times when an apothecary was the person who mixed herbs and made medicines and the shop was the small store where they worked. Picture jars, scales and a counter where remedies were mixed, so today the phrase means 'a place that prepared and sold medicines'.