When I was a kid the shop where you got medicines from was called a "chemist shop". Now they are "pharmacies"

Question

When and why did this change in name occur.
(UK question).

haha Koxinga - but I really am a goat.

Answer 1

I noticed that too. Soon they will be called Drugstores, and the bin man will be called a garbage collector. It's the garbage coming from across the pond.
And, Oh, say, 'When I was a boy...'

Answer 2

Don't know when it happened, it just seemed to creep up on us.

I think the change of name is because at one time a Chemist shop was just that a shop where a chemist made up meds.

Now the meds are made in pharmaceutical factories, so now we have the people who hand out the packs of potions, who call themselves pharmacists.
Therefore I guess they call their business premises pharmacies.

Just my theory

Answer 3

Yes I remember that never really thought about it, used to call the cinema "the pictures". My kids always think its funny I call the dustpan and brush the ashpan and brush, its because my mum used those words. Oh yes a eraser was a rubber when I was a kid. What about opal fruits, and marathon sweets they are now starburst and snickers.

Answer 4

Pharmacy, notepad, eraser, et al are terms from the American dialect. Sorry, but your language is evolving under pressure from American hegemony. Globalization through improving international communications is creating a de facto lingua franca via the Internet.

Just you wait, you'll be speaking in LOLCATS soon enough.
Example: i can has internashunul language? no. not yours.

Answer 5

When we became an American colony. It's the chemist's - boycott any that use a foreign word to descibe themselves.

Answer 6

I know what you mean same with lorries becoming trucks, sweeties becoming candy, litter and rubbish as trash and garbage, Jay instead of Jiy and lots more. I hate it because sometimes i findmyself using these words and kick myself after it!

Answer 7

When did apothecaries become chemist shops?

Answer 8

pharmacy is from the greek word pharmakia which means drugs. Why they chose the greek word i dont know

Answer 9

When did they start calling a tablet a notebook?
Or a gum an eraser.
sometimes i wonder about things like this...........
im not from UK, but same here in US

Answer 10

not always = usually still Chemists