different between druggist vs apothecary

English

Etymology

From French droguiste, replacing earlier drugger. See drug.

Noun

druggist (plural druggists)

1. A manufacturer and vendor of drugs and medicines.
   • 1777: Sir Lucius Cary (John Bell ed.), An Elegy on Dr. Donne (in Bell's Edition) [1]

     No druggist of the soul bestow'd on all / So catholicly a curing cordial.

Synonyms

• (medicine maker and seller): apothecary, chemist, pharmacist

See also

• drugstore

English

Etymology

From Old French apotecaire, from Medieval Latin apothecarius (“storekeeper”), from apotheca (“shop, store”), earlier Latin apotheca (“repository, storehouse, warehouse”), from Ancient Greek ??????? (apoth?k?, “a repository, storehouse”), from ??? (apó, “away”) + ?????? (títh?mi, “to put”) literally "a place where things are put away".

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??p???k??i/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??p????k???i/

Noun

apothecary (plural apothecaries)

1. (dated) A person who makes and provides/sells drugs and/or medicines.
2. (nonstandard, dated) A drugstore or pharmacy.
   • 1919, S.A., “Pharmacy in Russia”, in Soviet Russia, volume 1, number 27, page 6:

     The Russian people as a whole almost revered the apothecary, and they entered it as they would enter a sanctum.

   • 1998, Karen Holliday Tanner, Doc Holliday: A Family Portrait, University of Oklahoma Press (2001), ?ISBN, pages 205–206:

     He was befriended by a local druggist, Jay Miller, who worked at the apothecary at the corner of Sixth and Harrison Street.

   • 2001, Audrey Horning, “Archeology and the Science of Discovery”, in Barbara Heath et al., Jamestown Archeological Assessment, U.S. National Parks Service, page 31:

     Seeds found in a 1630s refuse-filled clay borrow pit, located near an apothecary, illustrate colonists^{[sic, meaning colonists’]} intense interest in experimenting with the medicinal qualities of New World plants.

3. A glass jar similar to those once used for medicine.

Synonyms

• (person who makes and sells drugs): druggist, pharmacist, chemist
• (store that sells drugs): drugstore; pharmacy; apothecary's shop, apothecary's (UK)

Translations

Related terms

Further reading

• apothecary in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• apothecary in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• apothecary at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “apothecary”, in Online Etymology Dictionary