medicine [ME] Medicine comes via French from the Latin ars medicina ‘the medical art’, often just shortened to medicina, formed from medicus ‘physician’ which was formed from mederi ‘to heal’ but originally with the meaning ‘know the best course for’. The remedy [ME] a doctor gives you also goes back, via French, to mederi with an emphatic re- in front, while medicate [E17th] and medication [LME] are based on medicus.