Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Dose
/doʊs/noun
A measured quantity of a medicine or other substance taken at one time.
The Greek roots
δόσις
dósis
a giving, a portion
Literally: “a giving”
Follow a root:δόσις2 words
The story of the word
δόσις is simply a giving, from διδόναι, to give, and Greek used it for gifts and payments as readily as for medicine. Physicians narrowed it to the portion handed to the patient, and it reached English through Late Latin and French in the fifteenth century. Antidote is the same family: ἀντίδοτον, the thing given against.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 15th century
Same family
antidoteanecdoteapodosis
In a sentence
Halve the dose for anyone under fifty kilos.
One dose of bad news a day is enough.