prescription
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English
Alternative forms
- præscription (archaic)
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French, from Old French prescripcion, from Latin praescriptio (“preface; pretext; something written ahead of time”), from prae- (“pre-, before”) + scribere (“to write”) + -tio (“-tion, forming nouns”).
Pronunciation
Noun
prescription (countable and uncountable, plural prescriptions)
- (medicine, pharmacy, pharmacology) A written order from an authorized medical practitioner for provision of a medicine or other treatment, such as (ophthalmology) the specific lenses needed for a pair of glasses.
- Synonyms: scrip, forescript, Rx, ℞
- The surgeon had written thousands of prescriptions for pain killers without proper examinations before the police raided the clinic.
- (medicine) The medicine or treatment provided by such an order.
- I need you to pick up gramma's prescriptions on your way home.
- 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter I, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. , volume I, London: Henry Colburn, , published 1842, →OCLC, page 9:
- "Oh, yes; she is the only sort of person for a nurse. She always," cried Lady Anne, with a sneer, "comes to you with a receipt for a pudding in one hand to make you ill, and then a prescription in the other to cure you."
- (figurative) Any plan of treatment or handling; the treatment or handling thus provided.
- Early to bed and early to rise is a prescription for a long, healthy, and terrible life.
- 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Return to Courtenaye Hall”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. , volume III, London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC, page 145:
- Change is the universal prescription for a wounded spirit. "It will do you so much good," is the constant remark.
- 1964, Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 157:
- ...looking at him I saw that I had been wrong in my prescription, if not in my diagnosis, and that the whisky was working against us.
- (law) Synonym of enactment, the act of establishing a law, regulation, etc., particularly in writing; an instance of this.
- 1997, Richard G. Alexander, “Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996: Congress Exceeds Its Jurisdiction to Prescribe Law”, in Washington & Lee Law Review, page 1609:
- A statute that cannot find justification for its prescription in one or more of these principles violates international law.
- (linguistics) The act of establishing or formalizing ideal norms for language use, as opposed to describing the actual norms of such use; an instance of this.
- (law) An established time period within which a right must be exercised and after which it is null and permanently unenforceable.
- Synonyms: extinctive prescription, liberative prescription
- (law) An established time period after which a person who has uninterruptedly, peacefully, and publicly used another's property acquires full ownership of it.
- Synonyms: acquisitive prescription, usucaption
- (obsolete) Synonym of self-restraint, limiting of one's actions especially according to a moral code or social conventions.
- 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 2, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1853, →OCLC:
- There is an air of prescription about him which is always agreeable to Sir Leicester; he receives it as a kind of tribute.
Usage notes
Often misspelled as or confused with proscription, the act of prohibiting something or condemning someone; in the linguistic sense, proscription is hyponymous to prescription.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
written order for the administration of a medicine
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prescribed medicine
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plan of treatment or planned treatment
the act of establishing a law or regulation in writing; an instance of this
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the act or practice of laying down norms of language usage; an instance of this
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extinctive or liberative prescription — see also statute of limitations
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usucapion, acquisitive prescription — see adverse possession
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Adjective
prescription (not comparable)
- only available with a physician or nurse practitioner's written prescription (of a drug, etc.)
- Many powerful pain killers are prescription drugs in the U.S.
Translations
available with prescription
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See also
French
Etymology
Inherited from Old French prescripcion, itself borrowed from Latin praescrīptiō.
Pronunciation
Noun
prescription f (plural prescriptions)
- (medicine) prescription (written order from an authorized medical practitioner for provision of a medicine or other treatment, such as (ophthalmology) the specific lenses needed for a pair of glasses)
- (law, sometimes figuratively) abandon of legal action by virtue of a statute of limitations; principle by which a person can no longer be prosecuted for a crime when a certain amount of time has elapsed
- Il y a prescription. ― Let bygones be bygones.
- (linguistics) prescription (act of establishing or formalizing ideal norms for language use, as opposed to describing the actual norms of such use)
- Coordinate term: description
Usage notes
- Not to be confused with proscription.
Related terms
Further reading
- “prescription”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.
Norman
Etymology
From Old French prescripcion, borrowed from Latin praescriptio, praescriptionem.
Noun
prescription f (plural prescriptions)