MEDICINE

noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin medicina, from feminine of medicinus of a physician, from medicus Date: 13th century 1. a substance or preparation used in treating disease, something that affects well-being, 2. the science and art dealing with the maintenance of health and the prevention, alleviation, or cure of disease, the branch of ~ concerned with the nonsurgical treatment of disease, a substance (as a drug or potion) used to treat something other than disease, an object held in traditional American Indian belief to give control over natural or magical forces, ~ transitive verb