Medicinary

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to or used for healing, curing diseases, or restoring health through therapeutic substances or treatments
2. A place associated with healing practices and providing remedies, often linked to the art of medicinal preparation and application for health restoration
3. Pertaining to the preparation and use of substances for therapeutic purposes to promote healing and alleviate ailments

Etymology: "Medicinary" is an obsolete spelling of "medicinal," and its story is simply that of the older word it stands beside. The base is "medicine," which comes from Latin "medicina," the art of healing, drawn from "medicus," a physician. The adjective was formed by adding the suffix "-al" to that noun, following the Latin "medicinalis," meaning "pertaining to medicine" or "healing." Its meaning is therefore literal: a thing belonging to the practice of curing. The word's form is the more unusual part. Where "medicinal" ended in "-al," this variant ended in "-ary," a suffix that English often uses for adjectives tied to a field or purpose, as in "dietary" or "military." Both endings were available for the same job, and "medicinary" lost out to the more common shape. Today it survives mainly in older texts, where it reads as a period spelling of the familiar adjective.