Patients receiving a prescription will not notice that the instructions are in clinical codes. Sure, the instructions for the patient are in English, but the ones for other doctors or the chemist are in code, which underlines timing and dose.
b.i.d. - It refers to taking medicine twice a day. It is an abbreviation of the Latin term "bis in die", which means two times a day.
q.d. - This means taking the medicine once a day. It is the abbreviation of the Latin term "quaque die", which means one time a day.
t.i.d. - It means three times a day. It comes from the Latin term "ter in die", which, as you might have already guessed, three times a day.
q.i.d. - This refers to four times a day and comes from the Latin word "quater in die", translated as a quarter of the day.