prescription
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɹəˈskɹɪpʃən/
ipa: /pɝˈskɹɪpʃən/
Forms: form: prescriptions
form: præscription
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”). Equivalent to prescribe + -tion.
Senses: examples: text: The surgeon had written thousands of prescriptions for pain killers without proper examinations before the police raided the clinic.
text: An old traditional prescription for provoking erotic inclinations ran as follows, The toe of the foot of a man, anointed with oil, or honey, or the ashes of a weasel.
ref: 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 234:
topics: medicine
pharmacology
sciences
synonyms: scrip
forescript
Rx
℞
qualifier: pharmacy
glosses: 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.
examples: text: I need you to pick up gramma's prescriptions on your way home.
text: "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."
ref: 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:
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: The medicine or treatment provided by such an order.
examples: text: Early to bed and early to rise is a prescription for a long, healthy, and terrible life.
text: Change is the universal prescription for a wounded spirit. "It will do you so much good," is the constant remark.
ref: 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:
text: ...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.
ref: 1964, Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 157:
glosses: Any plan of treatment or handling; the treatment or handling thus provided.
examples: text: A statute that cannot find justification for its prescription in one or more of these principles violates international law.
ref: 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:
topics: law
glosses: Synonym of enactment, the act of establishing a law, regulation, etc., particularly in writing; an instance of this.
synonyms: word: enactment
extra: the act of establishing a law, regulation, etc., particularly in writing; an instance of this.
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: 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.
topics: law
synonyms: extinctive prescription
liberative prescription
glosses: An established time period within which a right must be exercised and after which it is null and permanently unenforceable.
topics: law
synonyms: acquisitive prescription
usucaption
glosses: An established time period after which a person who has uninterruptedly, peacefully, and publicly used another's property acquires full ownership of it.
examples: text: There is an air of prescription about him which is always agreeable to Sir Leicester; he receives it as a kind of tribute.
ref: 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 2, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:
glosses: Synonym of self-restraint, limiting of one's actions especially according to a moral code or social conventions.
synonyms: word: self-restraint
word: limiting of one's actions especially according to a moral code or social conventions
Derived terms: deprescription
e-prescription
misprescription
non-prescription
nonprescription
overprescription
prescription bottle
prescription drug
prescription glasses
prescriptionist
prescriptionless
represcription
underprescription
Related terms: prescribe
prescriptivism