Talk:Apothecary

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[edit] Etymology

I temporarily removed this paragraph from the article:

The word is from the Latin apothecarius, a keeper of an otheca, a store; see also apotheca - a storehouse or magazine, Thuc.vi. 97, for books, Indoct. 5; a burial place, id. Contempl. 22; but especially a place in the upper part of the house in which the Romans kept their wine in amphorae.

What the heck does this all mean? If this etymology has to be so technical, then it should come later in the article. The opening of the article needs to be more accessable to the lay reader who just wants to know the basic facts of what an apothecary is. ike9898 21:45, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. Looks an evaluation of Latin poetry or something. Greatgavini 12:15, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

Rather than removing it, why not just move it later? I appreciate knowing the derivation of the word, and I think it is suitable content. WLD 08:29, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree, add it to the end or give it a section for etymology, since that would quickly be skipped if uninteresting to the reader. Wiki wiki1 03:57, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

I'll not comment on the sorry state of three different editors not able to parse an etymological passage. I will, however, suggest that the passage was probably a verbatim copy-and-paste from the OED website (I'm not a member, but the phrasing and thoroughness look like OED to me). The passage is not "so technical", it's just thorough, much more thorough than is needed here. The editor who pasted it in could have stopped at the first semi-colon. I see no reason why it couldn't be included at the end of the first paragraph; the original meaning of "apothecary" as merely a shop keeper is historically important. 12.22.250.4 18:20, 12 September 2007 (UTC)