Other forms: prescriptions
A prescription is the written order from a doctor that lets you buy a particular medicine. A repeat prescription, collect the prescription, on prescription.
Prescription-only medicines cannot be sold without one; over-the-counter medicines can. In England there is a flat prescription charge and in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland prescriptions are free. Prescription glasses are made to a measured strength. The word also means a recommended course of action generally: a prescription for disaster. Note prescriptive, which in grammar means laying down rules rather than describing usage.
1nounprescriptionA doctor's written order allowing you to buy a medicine.
“The prescription was ready in about ten minutes.”
2nounrecommendedA recommended course of action.
“Cutting the budget again is a prescription for disaster.”
prescription is a written order.
Latin praescriptio means something written beforehand — prae-, before, plus scribere, to write. The doctor's order is literally what is written before the medicine is handed over.
Latin
praescriptio — preface; pretext; something written ahead of time
Old French
prescripcion
English, today
prescription
Built from
Borrowed from Middle French -, from Old French prescripcion, from Latin praescriptio (“preface; pretext; something written ahead of time”), from prae- (“pre-, before”) + scribo (“to write”) + -tio (“-tion, forming nouns”). Equivalent to prescribe + tion.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA