Emily Dickinson Lexicon

A-POTH'E-CA-RY, n. [L. and Gr. apotheca, a repository, from αποτιθημι, to deposit or lay aside, or from θηκη, a chest.]

1. One who practices pharmacy; one who prepares drugs for medicinal uses, and keeps them for sale, In England, apothecaries are obliged to prepare medicines according to the formulas prescribed by the college of physicians, and are liable to have their shops visited by the censors of the college, who have power to destroy medicines which are not good.
2. In the middle ages, an apothecary was the keeper of any shop or warehouse; and an officer appointed to take charge of a magazine. – Encyc.