Officinal, a term applied in medicine to drugs, plants and herbs, which are sold in chemists' and druggists' shops, and to medical preparations of such drugs, &c., as are made in accordance with the prescriptions authorized by the pharmacopoeia. In the latter sense, modern usage tends to supersede "officinal" by "official." The classical Lat. officina meant a workshop, manufactory, laboratory, and in medieval monastic Latin was applied to a general store-room (see Du Cange, Gloss., s.v.); it thus became applied to a shop where goods were sold rather than a place where things were made.
Officinal
