Answer to age-old question is good medicine

I’m sure many people wonder, as I’ve wondered, why we so often see the ℞ symbol associated with prescriptions and pharmacies. What does this symbol mean, and where did it originate?

A prescription, as we all know, refers to a doctor’s instruction, usually in writing, for the composition and use of a medicine. This, in itself, provides a very important clue: the answer is not so astounding when one considers the etymology not of the word prescription, but, rather, of the word recipe, derived from the post-classical Latin recipe, denoting a formula for the composition or use of a medicine.

The Oxford English Dictionary gives the following as the medical definition of recipe.

A formula for the composition or use of a medicine, a prescription; a medicine prepared according to such a formula; a remedy.

Interpreted as an initialism, the symbol ℞ signals an instruction, usually “take”. A quotation from the New Hampshire Journal of Medicine (1855) supports this: “The following prescription was most useful. ℞ Valerian […]” Later, the ℞ symbol became synonymous with medical prescriptions, as illustrated in a 1911 advertisement in the October 20, 1911, edition of the Syracuse Herald. The ad included the caveat “℞ prescription shoes excepted.” A later quotation, from the Nebraska State Journal (5:1) in 1936 indicates that “results will be recorded in an ℞ (prescription) book”.

Oh, and those of you thinking I went to great pains to find this answer need to relax: ℞ chill pill. It is, as I said, something I’ve been aching to find out for a long time, too.

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Those interested in learning more can refer to The Story of English, a book by Robert MacNeil, Robert McCrum and William Cran. Twice revised since its original printing in 1986, the book details the development of the English language. Episodes of the nine-part, Emmy-award winning television series by the same name can be seen on YouTube.