over the counter

[Kevin Slater]

Why are non-prescription drugs called "over the counter"? The only drugs I get literally over a counter are prescription drugs a pharmacist hands to me. Non-prescription drugs are off the rack or shelf, involving no counter.

 

Kevin Slater

[+ azdr0710]

http://www.spine-health.com/files/field/image/OTC-Poll-PieChart.gif

 

http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/images/poisoning/rxbrief/sources_300w.png

 

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/images/databriefs/1-50/db42_Fig2.png

[rvwnsd]

Why are non-prescription drugs called "over the counter"? The only drugs I get literally over a counter are prescription drugs a pharmacist hands to me. Non-prescription drugs are off the rack or shelf, involving no counter.

 

Kevin Slater

This is purely speculation, but I wonder if it harkens back to the day when prescription drugs were compounded by the pharmacist and stores were not yet self-service, requiring a clerk to retrieve the item and hand it over the counter to the customer.

[+ José Soplanucas]

Why are non-prescription drugs called "over the counter"? The only drugs I get literally over a counter are prescription drugs a pharmacist hands to me. Non-prescription drugs are off the rack or shelf, involving no counter.

 

Kevin Slater

As an English learner, I always wonder the same.

[marylander1940]

Why are non-prescription drugs called "over the counter"? The only drugs I get literally over a counter are prescription drugs a pharmacist hands to me. Non-prescription drugs are off the rack or shelf, involving no counter.

 

Kevin Slater

 

Good point, from now on let's say:

 

Drugs/medicines purchasable without a doctor's prescription and drugs/medicines purchasable only with a doctor's prescription

 

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/over-the-counter

 

The exception are the drugs purchased online from www.alldaychemist.com a site I use to buy generic Viagra and I certainly recommend it.

[+ poolboy48220]

This is purely speculation, but I wonder if it harkens back to the day when prescription drugs were compounded by the pharmacist and stores were not yet self-service, requiring a clerk to retrieve the item and hand it over the counter to the customer.

I agree. We still say 'dial' a phone, when there are fewer and fewer people who remember actual dials on telephones.

[rvwnsd]

I agree. We still say 'dial' a phone, when there are fewer and fewer people who remember actual dials on telephones.

Not to mention the "ringtone" on cell phones.

[+ deej]

OTC actually has a different meaning in Canada. It denotes a somewhat controlled substance.

 

An SPF product is controlled and subject to special inspection. (And yet Tylenol with Codeine is freely available where in the US you need a prescription.)

 

Language changes slowly. Except when it doesn't.

[down_to_business]

Products here in the USA containing Pseudoephedrine, like Allegra-D, Claritin-D etc, I can only get "over-the-counter" of a pharmacy even without a written prescription needed.

[+ quoththeraven]

This may be as close to an answer as we'll get: before the age of self-service, "over the counter" was another way of saying "retail."

 

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/253984/what-does-over-the-counter-mean-literally

[whipped guy]

They are called idiomatic expressions and every language has them virtually all of which make no sense.

 

So when one is feeling like a bump on a log because they are under the weather one often gets an over the counter drug to help put them back in the pink so they can be in the swing of things.

 

Now if the literal translation of that sentence would not confuse anyone who is just learning English I don't know what will...

[+ Funguy]

They are called idiomatic expressions and every language has them virtually all of which make no sense.

 

So when one is feeling like a bump on a log because they are under the weather one often gets an over the counter drug to help put them back in the pink so they can be in the swing of things.

 

Now if the literal translation of that sentence would not confuse anyone who is just learning English I don't know what will...

 

I like these expressions . . . how about a few more, WG!

[AdamSmith]

Risking ostracism by the Etymological Society one could consider its opposite term these days to be under the counter...

 

http://i.istockimg.com/file_thumbview_approve/77270585/6/stock-photo-77270585-drug-abuse-transaction.jpg

[whipped guy]

I like these expressions . . . how about a few more, WG!

Well over the counter drugs usually don't cost an arm and a leg, or as the Italians would say un occhio della testa! (An eye from the head!)

[mike carey]

In Australia, OTC medicines are regulated by the Therapeutic Goods Administration but can be sold without a prescription. Some can only be sold by pharmacies but some of them can be sold in supermarkets and the like. They don't include 'complementary' medications.

[whipped guy]

I don't want anyone to have an ax to grind as dollars to donuts I'll get into deep water by getting this thread off the track so I will cool it for now. I will leave it for others to take a stab at things.

[+ Funguy]

I don't want anyone to have an ax to grind as dollars to donuts I'll get into deep water by getting this thread off the track so I will cool it for now. I will leave it for others to take a stab at things.

 

So now OTHERS are going to stab me?!

[whipped guy]

So now OTHERS are going to stab me?!

Si, gli altri ti pugnalerano!

 

(What he said... )

[+ Funguy]

Si, gli altri ti pugnalerano!

 

(What he said... )

 

RAAV (ridere ad alta voce) LOL

[AdamSmith]

Si, gli altri ti pugnalerano!

 

(What he said... )

E caddi...

 

[whipped guy]

E caddi...

 

... come corpo morto cade... loose translation: I've fallen and can't get up!

 

Povero (poor) funguy!

[+ Funguy]

Now I've lost track - "what is over the counter" in Canada? That's where everyone gets their viagra and cialis without prescription.