Pharmacist

How to spell pharmacist

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce pharmacist

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does pharmacist mean?

1. nounA person qualified to prepare and dispense medicines.

Pharmacist in a sentence

• The pharmacist checked the prescription before handing over the tablets.

• She trained for four years to qualify as a pharmacist.

Where does pharmacist come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word traces back to the Greek pharmakon, a remarkably double-edged term that could mean a remedy, a medicine, or equally a poison or magic potion, since the ancients understood that the same substance could heal or harm depending on the dose. From this came pharmakeia, the practice of giving drugs, and the related forms that produced 'pharmacy'. English absorbed 'pharmacy' through Latin and Old French in the late medieval period, and the agent noun 'pharmacist', meaning the person who prepares and dispenses medicines, was coined later, becoming common in the nineteenth century as it gradually replaced older terms like 'apothecary' and 'druggist'. The same pharmakon root sits inside 'pharmacology' and 'pharmaceutical', and that shared Greek 'ph' (spelling the f sound) is exactly the spelling trap, since the word sounds as though it should begin with an f.

How the word is built

• pharmac- (from Greek pharmakon: drug, remedy)
• -ist (one who practises)