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Glite Dictionary
materia medica

materia medica

9.5
A study of medicines, what they are like, and how to prepare and use them
  • noun
  • /məˈtɪr.i.ə ˈmɛd.ɪ.kə/
  • Archaic
translation icon : materia médica
  • Anthropologists who try to treat the sick when doing fieldwork are caught on the horns of a dilemma: to what extent are we ethically obliged to provide the wisdom and the materia medica of Western medicine when doing fieldwork?

Examples

  • This text contains a rich description of the Cherokee materia medica as it was used at the time.

    Academic text (2011)

  • Understanding materia medica is essential for any pharmacist to ensure safe drug preparation.

  • The student studied various herbal remedies in her materia medica course.

  • In her final project, she analyzed the historical use of plants in the materia medica of ancient civilizations.

Synonyms

pharmacology
vsmateria medica
  • Specialized
9 6.1

The study of medicines and how they affect living things

focuses more on practical preparation and clinical uses rather than biological effects
medical specialty
vsmateria medica
  • Specialized
1 3.9

A part of medicine that focuses on one area of the body or type of illness

is limited to the study and use of drugs rather than any single clinical area
pharmaceutics
vsmateria medica
  • Specialized
8.2

The study of making and preparing medicines for people to use

studies also the properties and uses beyond just preparation and dispensing

Surface Forms

materia medica singular
materia medicas plural

Morphology

materia + medica

This is a Latin, technical term whose constituents are not common English words (and the provided entries are missing), so a B1 learner who 'knows the constituent words' as given would not reliably infer the specialized sense. The phrase denotes a specific branch of medical/pharmacological study (akin to 'pharmacopeia'), which is a specialist meaning not compositionally predictable from literal readings of 'materia' and 'medica', making it opaque.

Etymology

The noun materia medica comes from Latin words materia, meaning 'material', and medica, meaning 'medical'. Early books called Materia Medica listed the plants and other substances used as medicine, so the phrase came to mean the 'study of medicines'.