The old doctor wrote his notes in apothecary's Latin.
apothecary's Latin
idiombarbarous Latin; badly-spoken Latin.
The student struggled to read the ancient medical text because it was written in poor apothecary's Latin.
Scholars often dismiss the messy, ungrammatical scribbles found in medieval medical journals as nothing more than apothecary's Latin.
Last updated July 12, 2026