folk medicine
- health practices arising from superstition, cultural traditions, or empirical use of native remedies, especially food substances.
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Origin of folk medicine
First recorded in 1895–1900
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for folk medicine
Historical Examples
"Folk-medicine" is really a branch of magic in old days, even to such pioneers of science as Paracelsus.
The Danish History, Books I-IXSaxo 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 WomenAlice 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.
Primitive Psycho-Therapy and QuackeryRobert Means Lawrence
folk medicine
- 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
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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
folk medicine
(fōlk)- Traditional medicine as practiced by nonprofessional healers or embodied in local custom or lore, generally involving the use of natural and especially herbal remedies.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.