Word of the Day

: December 7, 2008

officinal

adjective uh-FISS-uh-nul

What It Means

: tending or used to cure disease or relieve pain : medicinal

officinal in Context

The officinal properties of the plant, recently discovered in the Amazon rain forest, are still being studied.

Did You Know?

"Officinal" is a word applied in medicine to plants and herbs that are used in medicinal preparations. In the 19th century, it was the standard word used by the United States Pharmacopeia to refer to the drugs, chemicals, and medicinal preparations that they recognized, but in 1893 it was replaced by "official" in this context. Despite this supersession, you still can find a healthy dose of "officinal" in the pharmaceutical field, where it is used today as a word describing preparations that are regularly kept in stock at pharmacies. "Officinal" was derived from the Medieval Latin noun "officina," a word for the storeroom of a monastery in which provisions and medicines were kept. In Latin, "officina" means "workshop."