# What does RX mean **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 17, 2007, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-rx-mean/412136 "2007-07-17T15:02:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-rx-mean/412136/1 "2007-07-17T15:02:15Z")
Please enlighten a foreigner. I get all this spam offering **International Legal RX** and the like. There is also [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=423171) with several pharmacological references to RX. What is RX? ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-rx-mean/412136/2 "2007-07-17T15:06:14Z")
It just means a prescription. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-rx-mean/412136/3 "2007-07-17T15:07:20Z")
But what does it stand for? Why RX, not P? ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-rx-mean/412136/4 "2007-07-17T15:08:25Z")
Take thou. In Latin. Tris ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-rx-mean/412136/5 "2007-07-17T15:10:04Z")
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)](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=425380&highlight=recipe) ---
**Author:** ![ASAKMOTSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-rx-mean/412136/6 "2007-07-17T15:10:24Z")
[QUOTE=Triskadecamus] Take thou. In Latin. Tris [/QUOTE] Makes me want to say “Hey doc, can you write me a “take thou” for \?” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-rx-mean/412136/7 "2007-07-17T15:11:05Z")
[QUOTE=Dominic Mulligan] But what does it stand for? Why RX, not P? [/QUOTE] Uncertain, according to our ubiquitous friends at [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_prescription). > [@](#): > > The symbol “Rx” meaning “prescription” is a transliteration of a symbol resembling a capital R with a cross on the diagonal (℞). > > There are various theories about the origin of this symbol - some note its similarity to the Eye of Horus[citation needed], others to the ancient symbol for Jupiter[citation needed], both gods whose protection may have been sought in medical contexts. Alternatively, it may be intended as an abbreviation of the Latin “recipe”[citation needed], the imperative form of “recipere”, “to take”[2], and it is quite possible that more than one of these factors influenced its form. Literally, “Recipe” means simply “Take…” and when a doctor writes a prescription beginning with “Rx”, he or she is completing the command. ---
**Author:** ![CJJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-rx-mean/412136/8 "2007-07-17T15:14:02Z")
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). ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-rx-mean/412136/9 "2007-07-17T15:14:20Z")
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. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-rx-mean/412136/10 "2007-07-17T15:31:10Z")
[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. ---
**Author:** ![essell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/34f0e0/32.png) [@essell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/essell)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-rx-mean/412136/11 "2007-07-17T15:54:51Z")
One of the Master’s Minions [Speaks!](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mrx.html) Interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-rx-mean/412136/12 "2007-07-17T16:56:20Z")
[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. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-rx-mean/412136/13 "2007-07-17T17:18:07Z")
[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. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-rx-mean/412136/14 "2007-07-17T18:00:19Z")
[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: > [@](#): > > I. 1. a. A formula or prescription, a statement of the ingredients (and mode of procedure) necessary for the making of some preparation, esp. in Med. (now rare) and Cookery; a RECIPE. > > c1386 CHAUCER Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 800 What schal this receyt coste? telleth now. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-rx-mean/412136/15 "2007-07-17T21:08:15Z")
> [@](#): > > They were very happy, even after they discovered that they couldn’t live on love alone. John did not find Meg’s beauty diminished, though she beamed at him from behind the familiar coffee pot. Nor did Meg miss any of the romance from the daily parting, when her husband followed up his kiss with the tender inquiry, Shall I send some veal or mutton for dinner, darling? The little house ceased to be a glorified bower, but it became a home, and the young couple soon felt that it was a change for the better. At first they played keep-house, and frolicked over it like children. Then John took steadily to business, feeling the cares of the head of a family upon his shoulders, and Meg laid by her cambric wrappers, put on a big apron, and fell to work, as before said, with more energy than discretion. > > While the cooking mania lasted she went through **Mrs. Cornelius’s Receipt Book** as if it were a mathematical exercise, working out the problems with patience and care. Sometimes her family were invited in to help eat up a too bounteous feast of successes, or Lotty would be privately dispatched with a batch of failures, which were to be concealed from all eyes in the convenient stomachs of the little Hummels. An evening with John over the account books usually produced a temporary lull in the culinary enthusiasm, and a frugal fit would ensue, during which the poor man was put through a course of bread pudding, hash, and warmed-over coffee, which tried his soul, although he bore it with praiseworthy fortitude. Before the golden mean was found, however, Meg added to her domestic possessions what young couples seldom get on long without, a family jar. Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, chapter 28.