Definition

1. Verb:
   • To make up a prescription (of traditional medicine): The action of selecting and weighing out individual herbs or medicinal ingredients according to a doctor's prescription to prepare a dose of traditional Vietnamese or Eastern medicine.
   • To practice traditional medicine/herbalism: To work as a practitioner who diagnoses and prepares herbal remedies.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Ông ấy đang bốc thuốc cho bệnh nhân ở hiệu thuốc Đông y. (He is making up a prescription for a patient at the traditional medicine pharmacy.)
  • Cụ già trong làng không chỉ bốc thuốc mà còn châm cứu rất giỏi. (The elder in the village not only practices herbal medicine but is also very skilled at acupuncture.)

Advanced Usage

• "bốc thuốc nam": To make up/prescribe Southern Vietnamese traditional medicine (using indigenous herbs).
  • Ông lang này chuyên bốc thuốc nam chữa bệnh xương khớp. (This traditional doctor specializes in prescribing Southern medicine to treat joint diseases.)
• "bốc thuốc bắc": To make up/prescribe Northern (Sino-Vietnamese) traditional medicine.
  • Hiệu thuốc này có đầy đủ nguyên liệu để bốc thuốc bắc. (This pharmacy has all the ingredients to make up Northern medicine prescriptions.)

Variants and Related Words

• Thầy thuốc/Bác sĩ Đông y (n): A doctor/practitioner of traditional Eastern medicine.
• Lương y (n): A virtuous, skilled traditional medicine practitioner (a respectful term).
• Kê đơn (v): To write/prescribe a (medicine) prescription. Often precedes .
• Thang thuốc (n): A dose/decoction of traditional medicine, the result of .

Synonyms

• Phối thuốc: To combine/mix medicines (can be used in both traditional and modern contexts).
• Kê đơn, bốc thuốc: This is a common paired phrase meaning "to prescribe and make up the medicine."

Related Phrases

• Bốc thuốc theo đơn: To make up medicine strictly according to the prescription.
  • Người phụ tá có nhiệm vụ bốc thuốc theo đơn của lương y. (The assistant's duty is to make up the medicine according to the herbalist's prescription.)
• Nghề bốc thuốc: The profession of practicing traditional herbal medicine.
  • Nghề bốc thuốc của gia đình ông đã truyền qua ba đời. (His family's profession of practicing herbal medicine has been passed down for three generations.)

Notes on Meaning

• The term bốc thuốc is deeply associated with traditional Vietnamese medicine (Đông y) and herbalism. It implies a manual process of selecting specific amounts of dried herbs, roots, barks, etc., from many separate containers.
• It is not used for dispensing modern Western pills or tablets from a bottle, which is typically described as "lấy thuốc" (to get medicine) or "phát thuốc" (to dispense medicine).
• The second meaning ("to practice traditional medicine") derives from the primary action that defines the practitioner's work.

1. Make up (a prescription)
   • Thầy lang kê đơn bốc thuốc
     The herb-doctor writes out a presciption and makes it up