For what Rx on prescription in many countries stand for?

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pawelk1986
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24 Jun 2018, 6:18 am

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/in ... stand-for/




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I'm from Poland , i had Asperger Syndrome aside of that i'm totally normal guy :-) in Poland in old medical prescription from 80' in Poland when we was still commie to late 90's when we ware free there was Rx on medical prescription was Rx, now is Rp in Poland we call medical prescription as "Recepta" now our medical prescription stand big Rp. followed by dot. and medication that is prescribed, doctors print in computer, than some doctors especially old one drawing lines by pen, as the if thought, patient is conman that might self-prescribe med themselves xD 

So returning to Rx i saw one American medical movies and tv shows that American and British use Rx on prescription too, and knew German use it too. 

My doctor prescribe me Hydroxyzine and Nitrazepam 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrazepam for my insomnia 
And Seronil SSRI Fluoxetinum/Fluoxetine 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoxetine 
for my mood problem 

I take Mataformine for my insulin resistance, I do not like taking drugs but I have to, I'm lucky I do not have to pay a lot for it because in my country we have universal health services, and in large part medicines are refunded by our government :-) 

I think Rx look more cool xD than Rp and Poland should go back to it, but i wonder what it's means?


https://answers.yahoo.com/question/inde ... 556AAJOHmD



naturalplastic
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25 Jun 2018, 1:57 am

The symbol for prescriptions is universal. Calling it "R X" is just a modern transliterated way of writing it.

Its an ancient symbol unto itself that predated the letters of the Roman alphabet.

In fact the RX symbol is actually "the one and only Egyptian hieroglyph still in everyday use in the modern world" according to a book by Charles Berlitz. It's actually "the eye of Horus" . Apparently it spread beyond Egypt in Hellenistic and Roman times. And was inherited by Middle Ages, and modern Europe as a symbol for apothecaries.



Darmok
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25 Jun 2018, 2:50 am

What is now usually written as "Rx" is actually a capital R with a line drawn across the descender to indicate that it is an abbreviation (similar to adding a period). It is a standard Unicode symbol: ℞

It's the manuscript abbreviation for the Latin word "take" (Recipe, imperative). So "℞ two aspirin daily" literally means "Take two aspirin daily."

Image

(Tangentially, there is another very strange non-letter still in use from medieval times. It's the "z" in the abbreviation "viz." (namely), which isn't actually a z at all . . . ) :D


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Kiprobalhato
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25 Jun 2018, 3:06 am

i thought it was a derivative of the eye of horus.


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