# prescription
## 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

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

### 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

* deprescription
* e-prescription
* misprescription
* non-prescription
* nonprescription
* overprescription
* prescription bottle
* prescription drug
* prescription glasses
* prescriptionist
* prescriptionless
* represcription
* underprescription

#### Related terms

* prescribe

#### Translations

Albanian: recetë (sq) f
Arabic: وَصْفَة طِبِّيَّة f (waṣfa ṭibbiyya), وَصْفَة f (waṣfa)
Armenian: դեղատոմս (hy) (deġatoms), ռեցեպտ (hy) (ṙecʻept) (colloquial)
Azerbaijani: resept, nüsxə (az)
Belarusian: рэцэ́пт m (recépt)
Bengali: প্রেসক্রিপশন (bn) (preśokripośon)
Bulgarian: реце́пта (bg) f (recépta)
Burmese: ဆေးစာ (my) (hce:ca)
Catalan: recepta (ca) f
Chinese:
Cantonese: 藥方 / 药方 (joek$^6$ fong$^1$), 處方 / 处方 (cyu$^2$ fong$^1$)
Hokkien: 藥方 / 药方 (zh-min-nan) (io̍h-hng), 處方 / 处方 (zh-min-nan) (chhú-hng)
Mandarin: 藥方 / 药方 (zh) (yàofāng), 處方 / 处方 (zh) (chǔfāng)
Czech: předpis (cs) m
Danish: recept (da) c
Dutch: voorschrift (nl) n, recept (nl) n
Egyptian: (šsꜣw m)
Estonian: retsept (et)
Finnish: resepti (fi)
French: ordonnance (fr) f
Georgian: რეცეპტი (receṗṭi)
German: Rezept (de) n, Verschreibung (de) f
Greek: συνταγή (el) f (syntagí)
Ancient: ἀναγραφή f (anagraphḗ)
Haitian Creole: preskripsyon
Hebrew: מִרְשָׁם m (mirshám)
Hindi: नुसख़ा m (nusxā)
Hungarian: recept (hu)
Indonesian: resep dokter, resep (id)
Irish: oideas (ga) m
Italian: ricetta (it) f, prescrizione (it) f
Japanese: 処方 (ja) (しょほう, shohō), 処方箋 (ja) (しょほうせん, shohōsen)
Kazakh: рецепт (resept)
Khmer: វេជ្ជបញ្ជា (vɨccĕəʼ bɑñciə), សំបុត្រទិញថ្នាំ (sɑmbot tɨñ thnam), វេជ្ជបញ្ញត្តិ (vɨccĕəʼbaññat), អាណាប័ណ្ណ (ʼaanaa ban)
Korean: 처방(處方) (ko) (cheobang), 처방전 (ko) (cheobangjeon)
Kurdish:
Northern Kurdish: nusxe (ku), raçêt (ku)
Kyrgyz: рецепт (retsept)
Lao: ຂນານ (kha nān)
Latvian: recepte f
Lithuanian: receptas m
Macedonian: реце́пт m (recépt)
Malay: surat ubat, preskripsi
Maori: whakahau rongoā, ōta rongoā
Mongolian:
Cyrillic: жор (mn) (žor), эмийн жор (emiin žor)
Mongolian: ᠵᠣᠷ (ǰor), ᠡᠮ ᠦᠨ ᠵᠣᠷ (em-ün ǰor)
Norwegian:
Bokmål: resept m (for medicine); brilleseddel m (for lenses)
Nynorsk: resept m (for medicine), brillesetel m (for lenses)
Pashto: نسخه (ps) f (nosxá)
Persian: نسخه (fa) (nosxe), نسخه پزشک (nosxe-ye pezešk)
Polish: recepta (pl) f
Portuguese: receita (pt) f
Romanian: rețetă (ro) f
Russian: реце́пт (ru) m (recépt), предписа́ние (ru) n (predpisánije)
Scottish Gaelic: riaghailt-lèigh f, òrdugh-cungaidh m
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: рѐцепт m
Roman: rècept (sh) m
Sicilian: rizzetta f
Slovak: predpis m
Slovene: recept m
Spanish: receta (es) f
Swedish: recept (sv) n
Tagalog: reseta
Tajik: нусха (nusxa), ретсепт (retsept)
Thai: ใบสั่งยา (bai-sàng-yaa)
Tibetan: སྨན་ཐོ (sman tho)
Turkish: reçete (tr)
Turkmen: resept
Ukrainian: реце́пт m (recépt)
Urdu: نسخہ (ur) m (nusxā)
Uyghur: رېتسېپ (rëtsëp)
Uzbek: retsept (uz)
Vietnamese: toa thuốc
Welsh: rhagnodyn m
Yakut: рецепт (retsept) :
    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### 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
### See also

* prescriptivism

## French
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /pʁɛs.kʁip.sjɔ̃/
* Audio:(file)

### 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

* prescriptif
* imprescriptible

### Further reading

* “prescription”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Norman
### Etymology

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

### Noun

prescription f (plural prescriptions)
* (Jersey) prescription