>My wife is wiriting her MBA thesis on Internet marketing, and the like. We
>had an argument about which form of the word "drugstore" or "pharmacy"
>should be preferred. To my knowledge, a "drugstore" is more like AmE, and a
>"pharmacy" is probably preferred by the Brits. If the whole work is being
>prepared in the AmE style (phrasing, spelling, etc) the "drugstore" seems to
>be more appropriate, right?
>Thanks in advance for your kind help.
>Regards,
To me, an American, a pharmacy is not an independent store (British
"shop"), but a location in a hospital or other establishment where
prescriptions can be filled, sometimes called a dispensary.
On the other hand, a late classified telephone directory has no
entries for "Drugstores" but a page or so of "Pharmacies", so maybe
I'm behind the times.
_NSOED_ says
pharmacy
[...]
3 A place where medicines are prepared or dispensed; a
dispensary.
dispensary
1 A place, esp. a room in a doctors surgery or a chemists
shop, in which medicines are dispensed;
drugstore N. Amer. a chemists shop also selling
miscellaneous articles and often light refreshment
chemist
[...]
4 A dealer in medicinal drugs, usu. also selling other
medical goods and toiletries.
But the online _Merriam-Webster Dictionary_ (
m-w.com) says "pharmacy"
and "drugstore" are synonymous.
