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definitions

folk medicine

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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR folk medicine ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

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

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RELATED WORDS

healing, shamanism

Origin of folk medicine

First recorded in 1895–1900
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for folk medicine

Historical Examples of folk medicine

  • "Folk-medicine" is really a branch of magic in old days, even to such pioneers of science as Paracelsus.

    The Danish History, Books I-IX

    Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Learned")

  • This was possibly the verbena, well known in folk-medicine as vervain, and much used in the Middle Ages.

    Of Six Medival Women

    Alice Kemp-Welch

  • Many of these were borrowed by the Greeks and from them have come down into the folk-medicine of modern Europe.

  • "Dragon's milk," a favourite compound of mighty power in the magic formul of Finnish and Magyar folk-medicine.

  • An enumeration of uncouth remedies formerly in vogue would fill huge pharmacopœias, and belongs to the domain of Folk-Medicine.

British Dictionary definitions for folk medicine

folk medicine

noun

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
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Medicine definitions for folk medicine

folk medicine

[fōlk]

n.

Traditional medicine as practiced by nonprofessional healers or embodied in local custom or lore, generally involving the use of natural and especially herbal remedies.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.