Rx

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
1

Going about asking pharmacists what it means is a noble try but you ought to have consulted a Latin scholar instead. The x is not an x, it is a slash through the stem of the r. As it is pointed out in the article, this is used in other medical abbreviations. It adds nothing to the meaning. It is simply a symbol for abbreviation (like a period at the end of words in Eng.), the abbreviated word being, in all likelihood, recipe, or “take.” Invocation to the gods indeed.

Link to Mailbag Article: What does the pharmacists’ symbol Rx mean? – CKDext
[Note: This message has been edited by CKDextHavn]

2

Just pickin’ fly-poop out of black pepper here, Jill, but did you really mean “picture in it is logo”? Typo, right?

3

[[Just pickin’ fly-poop out of black pepper here, Jill, but did you really mean “picture in it is logo”? Typo, right?]]

Whoa. I would NEVER put an apostrophe in the possessive “its,” so I can only think that Ed Zotti edited that in. I apologise on his behalf.
Jill

4

[[Going about asking pharmacists what it means is a noble try but you ought to have consulted a Latin scholar instead. The x is not an x, it is a slash through the stem of the r. As it is pointed out in the article, this is used in other medical abbreviations. It adds nothing to the meaning. It is simply a symbol for abbreviation (like a period at the end of words in Eng.), the abbreviated word being, in all likelihood, recipe, or “take.” Invocation to the gods indeed.]]

I did consult books on abbreviations and medical terminology, and found “rx” and sometimes the others (dx, tx, hx), but no explanations about their origin, or that “x” is commonly used to abbreviate terms. Thanks for that information. From what I have seen, Rx is the only one used as a symbol (with the cross through the leg of the R) and not just an abbreviation like the others. If you look at the Eye of Horus in the website (check the newer version of the Rx mailbag answer now posted - I go from attributing the symbol to Jupiter to giving the Egyptians credit - still invoking gods), you’ll see that the eye symbol also has a leg that hangs down like the bottom of the R. So maybe it evolved from there, and they incorporated the R for “recipe” and crossed the leg to give it the abbreviation “x.” I like that explanation, anyway.
Jx

5

[[I remembered seeing a farmacia in Juarez, Mexico with the eyeball/x picture in its logo.]]

Looks fixed to me. Guess I screwed it up and Zotti fixed it. Gotta help the guy feel useful somehow.
Jill

6

Hmm, nothing like looking in a dictionary. Dunno if it matters, but I want to see if that R with a slash through it appears right when posted.

Rx 'ar-"eks\ noun [alter. of R, symbol used at the beginning of a prescription, abbr. for L recipe, lit., take — more at recipe] (1926)
: a medical prescription

©1996 Zane Publishing, Inc. and Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Oh, I guess not, they just show an ‘R’ with no slash thru it, nuts.