The corpus record — Latin

medicamentum

medicament, drug

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

De Medicina 259 · 25.27/10k
De agri cultura 7 · 4.47/10k
Firmus Saturninus, Proculus et Bonosus 1 · 4.32/10k
C. Caligula 3 · 3.93/10k
De Cultu Feminarum 2 · 3.9/10k
Naturalis Historia 126 · 3.18/10k
De Providentia 1 · 2.44/10k
Ab urbe condita, books 6-10 - 8 3 · 2.32/10k
Res Rustica, Books I-IX 14 · 1.78/10k
Pro A. Cluentio 3 · 1.44/10k
De Vita Beata 1 · 1.38/10k
Florida 1 · 1.27/10k

Densest 12 of 34 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. medicamentum — de Vaan

medicamentum 'medicament, drug' (PL+); remedium 'remedy' (Cato+). Pit *medr-e-. PIE *med- 'to measure*. IE cognates: Olr. midithir 'to measure, judge', MW medu *to think, possess, distribute', MCo. medhes 'to say* < PCI. *mede/o-> Olr. mess judgement' < *medrtu-, air-med. 'measure'; YAv. vi-maSaiianta 'they must measure', νϊ-madr 'healer, physician'; Gr. μέδω 'to rule*, μέδομαι 'to care for, think of, μήδομαι 'to … — [de Vaan, s.v. medicamentum, p. 382]

2. mĕdĭcāmentum — Lewis & Short

mĕdĭcāmentum, i, n.medicor,

I a drug, remedy, physic, medicine, medicament.

I Lit.: medicamentum alicui dare ad aquam intercutem, Cic. Off. 3, 24, 92: haurire, Plin. 24, 19, 113, § 174: sumere, to take, Curt. 3, 6, 3: componere, to compound, Plin. 32, 9, 34, § 106: somnificum, id. 37, 10, 57, § 158: medicamenta salubria, Liv. 8, 18: salutaria, Cic. N. D. 2, 53, 132.—Also of remedies applied externally: medicamentis delibutus, Cic. Brut. 60, 217.—

B Transf., like the Gr. fa/rmakon, a drug, a potion.

1 A hurtful drug, poison: quaerit ibidem ab Hannibale, cur biberit medicamentum, Varr. ap. Non. 345, 23: coquere medicamenta, Liv. 8, 18: medicamentis partum abigere, Cic. Clu. 11, 32: medicamento sagittas tingere, Plin. 27, 11, 76, § 101: amatorium, a love-potion, philter, Suet. Calig. 50; of an enchanted potion, Plaut. Ps. 3, 2, 80.—

2 A tincture for dyeing, a color, dye, mordant, Cic. Fragm. ap. Non. 521, 20: crassius, Sen. Q. N. 1, 3: rudia, Plin. 35, 6, 26, § 44.—

3 A seasoning, condiment, Col. 12, 20.—

4 A paint, wash, cosmetic, Sen. Ben. 7, 9, 2.—

5 A plastering, Vop. Firm. 3.—

II Trop.

A A remedy, relief, antidote (rare but class.): multorum medicamentum laborum, Cic. Clu. 71, 201: doloris medicamenta illa Epicurea, id. Fin. 2, 7, 22: panchrestum medicamentum (sc. pecunia), Cic. Verr. 2, 3, 65, § 152.—

B (Acc. to I. B. 4.) An embellishment: medicamenta fucati candoris, et ruboris, Cic. Or. 23, 79.—

C An enchantment: ne quid mali medicamenti inferretur, Plin. 28, 9, 37, § 142.

In the wild

medicamentis Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 17.16.2
medicamenta Celsus, De Medicina 6.6.p3
medicamenta Celsus, De Medicina 6.18.p3
medicamenta Celsus, De Medicina 8.10.p8
medicamentum Celsus, De Medicina 6.19.p1
medicamenta Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 8.31.p2

6 of 466 attestations shown.

Where it came from

de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. medicamentum (scan p. 382; entry #1015). Root candidates: *med-, *medrtu-.

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.