Wiktionary

prescription

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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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

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  • IPA(key): /pɹəˈskɹɪpʃən/, (proscribed) /pɝˈskɹɪpʃən/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

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prescription (countable and uncountable, plural prescriptions)

  2. (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.
  4. (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."
  6. (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.
  9. (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.
  11. (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
  13. (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
  15. (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

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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

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Translations

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Adjective

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prescription (not comparable)

  1. 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

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See also

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French

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Etymology

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Inherited from Old French prescripcion, itself borrowed from Latin praescrīptiō.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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prescription f (plural prescriptions)

  1. (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)
  2. (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.
  3. (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

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Further reading

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Norman

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Etymology

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From Old French prescripcion, borrowed from Latin praescriptio, praescriptionem.

Noun

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prescription f (plural prescriptions)

  1. (Jersey) prescription
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