What does RX mean

Factual Questions
1

Please enlighten a foreigner.

I get all this spam offering International Legal RX and the like. There is also this thread with several pharmacological references to RX. What is RX?

2

It just means a prescription.

3

But what does it stand for? Why RX, not P?

4

Take thou.

In Latin.

Tris

5

An abbreviation for the Latin word “Recipe”, meaning “Take”, as in “Take 3 pills per day.”

Use of X in Medical Abbreviations (or Ux of X in Mx Ax)

6

[QUOTE=Triskadecamus]
Take thou.

In Latin.

Tris
[/QUOTE]

Makes me want to say “Hey doc, can you write me a “take thou” for <some medication>?” :smiley:

7

[QUOTE=Dominic Mulligan]
But what does it stand for? Why RX, not P?
[/QUOTE]

Uncertain, according to our ubiquitous friends at Wikipedia.

8

The latin term recipe - “take!” is the usual explanation for “Rx”. The “x” is a summation of the last five letters of that latin command (the fact that old pharmacy signs often place the “x” a little lower than the “R” supports the idea).

9

Wikipedia tells me that it either comes from the Eye of Horus or the symbol of Jupiter, either of which were used in medical-related contexts.

ETA: Too slow on the uptake. :confused:

10

[QUOTE=CJJ*]
The latin term recipe - “take!” is the usual explanation for “Rx”. The “x” is a summation of the last five letters of that latin command (the fact that old pharmacy signs often place the “x” a little lower than the “R” supports the idea).
[/QUOTE]

And that’s why “recipe” means “list of ingredients and procedure for making something to eat” - it’s all the things you “take” and what you do with them.

11

One of the Master’s Minions Speaks!

Interesting.

12

[QUOTE=Malacandra]
And that’s why “recipe” means “list of ingredients and procedure for making something to eat” - it’s all the things you “take” and what you do with them.
[/QUOTE]

Oddly enough, I have seen the word “receipt” used to mean “recipe” in the culinary sense, which does make sense since a “receipt” can mean a “taking” of something. However, I’ve only seen it used this way in one place, a translation of Jules Verne’s The Mysterious Island. I don’t know if that was a translator’s error, or if was really used that way in 19th century English.

13

[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus]
I don’t know if that was a translator’s error, or if was really used that way in 19th century English.
[/QUOTE]

I’ve heard that in the 20th century, in some parts of America. 'Course, those parts were noted for speaking a 17th-century English dialect. :wink:

14

[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus]
Oddly enough, I have seen the word “receipt” used to mean “recipe” in the culinary sense, which does make sense since a “receipt” can mean a “taking” of something. However, I’ve only seen it used this way in one place, a translation of Jules Verne’s The Mysterious Island. I don’t know if that was a translator’s error, or if was really used that way in 19th century English.
[/QUOTE]
The only place I remember seeing it used that way was in a short story in a grade school reader, set in the 40s or 50s in a small Kansas or Iowa town.

Interestingly, that’s the earliest cited meaning in the OED. But the modern meaning shows up just a little later, which suggests both meanings may have been in use at the same time. From the OED:

15

Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, chapter 28.