Middle English Names of Medical Preparations: Towards a Standard Medical Terminology

This study provides a comprehensive examination of Middle English names of medical preparations found in the available medical works produced in the 14th and 15th centuries, and in a number of dictionaries. Altogether over 1600 references to medicaments have been collected. They have been divided into three major categories: general terms denoting medical preparations, terms denoting dosage forms, and terms denoting specifics. The analysis concentrates on the origin of the terms, their structure, and their distribution and presentation in texts representing different traditions of medical writing.