Alexipharmic

//əˌlɛksɪˈfɑːmɪk// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Synonym of alexipharmac (“a medical remedy for protecting the body, or an antidote, against harmful substances, especially a poison or venom (specifically, that of a snake)”); an antidote. also, archaic, figuratively, historical
Adjective
  1. 1
    Synonym of alexipharmac (“of or pertaining to an alexipharmac; also, acting as an alexipharmac by protecting against or warding off the ill effects of a harmful substance, especially a poison or venom”). archaic, historical

Etymology

A variant of alexipharmac + -ic (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Alexipharmac is borrowed from the following: * As a noun, from Middle French alexipharmaque (modern French alexipharmaque (archaic)), and from its etymon Latin alexipharmacon (“antidote”) (whence Late Latin alexipharmacum), from Ancient Greek ἀλεξῐφᾰ́ρμᾰκον (alexĭphắrmăkon, “antidote; (generally) remedy; charm, spell”), a noun use of the neuter of ἀλεξῐφᾰ́ρμᾰκος (alexĭphắrmăkos, “acting as an antidote”), from ἀλέξειν (aléxein) (the active infinitive of ἀλέξω (aléxō, “to defend, guard, protect; to help; to keep off, turn aside, ward off”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂lek- (“to protect”)) + φάρμᾰκον (phármăkon, “drug, whether healing or poisonous; charm, potion, spell; colour, dye”) + -ος (-os, suffix forming certain types of adjectives). * As an adjective, from French alexipharmaque (archaic), and from its etymon Late Latin alexipharmacus, from Ancient Greek ἀλεξιφάρμακος (alexiphármakos) (see above).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.