apothecary

American  

[uh-poth-uh-ker-ee] / əˈpɒθ əˌkɛr i /

noun

plural

apothecaries

1. a druggist; a pharmacist.

2. a pharmacy or drugstore.

3. (especially in England and Ireland) a druggist licensed to prescribe medicine.

---

apothecary British  

/ əˈpɒθɪkərɪ /

noun

1. an archaic word for pharmacist

2. law a chemist licensed by the Society of Apothecaries of London to prescribe, prepare, and sell drugs

---

Etymology

Origin of apothecary

1325–75; Middle English (< Old French ) < Medieval Latin apothēcārius seller of spices and drugs, Late Latin: shopkeeper, equivalent to Latin apothēc ( a ) shop, storehouse (< Greek apothḗkē; apo-, theca ) + -ārius -ary

Example Sentences

Instead of shelves of alcohol, apothecary drawers stocked with ingredients like goji berries and angelica root line the walls, permeating the room with their scent.

From Barron's • Feb. 13, 2026

No-nonsense Maomao, a Tang Dynasty-era girl raised in a brothel who escapes servitude to parlay her apothecary skills in service of the palace, is one of the best female protagonists of all time.

From Salon • Dec. 19, 2025

Paleontologists first discovered Gigantopithecus in the mid-1930s in a Hong Kong apothecary where the ape’s unusually large molars were being hawked as “dragon teeth.”

From New York Times • Jan. 10, 2024

These forests were the grocery store and apothecary, the garment district and hardware store, where food, medicines and the wood for everything was to be found.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 19, 2023

While she snored like a giant, I sorted through her keys until I found the one that unlocked the apothecary.

From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein