folk medicine

noun

1. health practices arising from superstition, cultural traditions, or empirical use of native remedies, especially food substances.

folk medicine

noun

1. the traditional art of medicine as practised among rustic communities and primitive peoples, consisting typically of the use of herbal remedies, fruits and vegetables thought to have healing power, etc

Word History and Origins

Origin of folk medicine¹

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

William Schaffner, a professor of infectious disease at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told Salon before the 1980s, zinc was seen as a “folk medicine.”

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It’s part of a belief in folk medicine, curing charms and faith healers that is still a way of life for many in Ireland, if a fading one.

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“It’s the whole community-based element of folk medicine that is so important,” said Bairbre Ní Fhloinn, an associate professor of Irish folklore at University College Dublin.

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“Folk medicine can attract charlatans and chancers of all kinds,” Dr. Ní Fhloinn said.

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Throughout the world, at least 284 reptile species are used in traditional folk medicine, and of these, 182 are listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List, an indication that they are threatened with extinction.

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