An apothecary was someone who prepared and sold medicines, much like a pharmacist does today. Before modern drugstores existed, people visited their local apothecary when they were sick or needed remedies for ailments. The apothecary would mix herbs, minerals, and other ingredients to create medicines, often grinding them with a mortar and pestle or measuring them on precise scales.

Apothecaries kept their shops stocked with jars of dried plants, mysterious-looking powders, and strange-smelling liquids, all carefully labeled. They needed deep knowledge of which substances could heal and which could harm. Some apothecaries also offered medical advice, since doctors were expensive and harder to find.

You'll encounter apothecaries in historical novels set before the 1900s, like when a character in a Victorian story rushes to the apothecary for a fever remedy. Today, some modern pharmacies use “apothecary” in their names to sound traditional and trustworthy. The word can also refer to the shop itself, so you might read about someone visiting the apothecary on the corner.