[Vocabulary] toiletries shop

Hello,

In Hungarian we use a given word for a shop that sells cosmetics and toiletries, and I would like to ask someone if there is a word for it in English as well, or if we should say ' a cosmetics and toiletries shop'.

Thank you very much, :roll:
heyt

In the US, such a shop would be called a "drug store." Grocery stores and department stores (such as Wal-Mart) also sell cosmetics and toiletries, but if a person wants a large variety of shampoos and soaps and eye shadow and lipstick and such from which to choose, he or she would go to a drug store.

Thank you very much.

Is drug store also the place where you can buy prescribed medicine?

In Hungary, shops that sell cosmetics and toiletres sell only medicine that are not prescribed drugs.

Not a teacher.

"Pharmacy" is the fancy American word, but "drug store" is common as well.

In Britain, they call it a "chemist."

SoothingDave said:

Not a teacher.

"Pharmacy" is the fancy American word, but "drug store" is common as well.

In Britain, they call it a "chemist."

Click to expand...

It's not quite as simple as that in the UK. A chemist's is mainly where you go to get prescription medication. Smaller ones literally only do that, and sell a small amount of non-prescription medication, things like First Aid items, condoms etc. Larger ones do stock toiletries, though not necessarily cosmetics.

Then you get to the chain store variety (Boots, for instance, which used to be called "Boots the Chemists") which do everything: prescriptions, opticians, cosmetics, toiletries, some electrical items (hairdryers etc) and even food and drink.

A shop which only sells toiletries and cosmetics, but no drugs? I can't think of a word which would describe such a shop. We would generally have to refer to it by the specific company name.

Thanks. I wasn't sure if the British "chemists" had expanded their offerings like the drug stores in America. Some of them here even sell beer and milk and have blurred the line between drug store and supermarket.

heyt said:

Thank you very much.

Is drug store also the place where you can buy prescribed medicine?

In Hungary, shops that sell cosmetics and toiletres sell only medicine that are not prescribed drugs.

Click to expand...

Yes, in America it is common that the place for prescribed medicine also sells what we call "over-the-counter" medicines (no prescription required) and many other things. The presence of a licensed professional pharmacist is the reason for the store. But they offer many other medicinal items. And, increasingly, cosmetics and food items, candy, small gifts, newspapers, etc.

SoothingDave said:

Not a teacher.

"Pharmacy" is the fancy American word, but "drug store" is common as well.

In Britain, they call it a "chemist."

Click to expand...

Not just 'fancy American'; I'd say it was Global English. Many languages have a cognate for 'pharmacy', and maybe a better-hidden one for 'chemist' if any at all - e.g. Fr pharmacie (with chimie, phonetically more distant anyway, leading the student down the wrong semantic track anyway; in the 1950s I had a chemistry set with instructions that said I could buy extra chemicals from a chemist, but not many chemists do that any more - try going into Superdrug and asking for a gram of Potassium Permanganate!).

Besides, because the USA owed so much to immigration, Am English tends to favour more widely accessible vocabulary. It may sound hi-falutin to a Br English ear, but it's not.

b

BobK said:

try going into Superdrug and asking for a gram of Potassium Permanganate!).


b

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Ha ha!! Now you've made me want to try that! Potassium Permanaganate was my favourite chemical at school - just because it burnt purple, my favourite colour!

SoothingDave said:

Not a teacher.

"Pharmacy" is the fancy American word, but "drug store" is common as well.

Click to expand...

It's not a "fancy" word, but rather a legal term. For example, in the US a drug store under construction (even chains like Rite Aid or Walgreen's) have to cover up the "pharmacy" part of their "Coming Soon!" outdoor signage until the store has been inspected by and approved by the state's Board of Pharmacy. A pharmacy indicates that there is a board-certified pharmacist on duty who is licensed to dispense prescription drugs.

Ouisch said:

It's not a "fancy" word, but rather a legal term. For example, in the US a drug store under construction (even chains like Rite Aid or Walgreen's) have to cover up the "pharmacy" part of their "Coming Soon!" outdoor signage until the store has been inspected by and approved by the state's Board of Pharmacy. A pharmacy indicates that there is a board-certified pharmacist on duty who is licensed to dispense prescription drugs.

Click to expand...

Opinion taken. What I meant to say, other than "fancy" was that it was a "50-cent word" rather than the vulgar Anglo-Saxon ones. "Pharmacy," I believe comes from Greek, but "drug store" seems more common. It is descriptive and not requiring you to have a different vocabulary.

If you have a better term for me to use in the future for that (the common versus fancy Latin or Greek or French term) then please tell me and I will do so, to avoid confusion for the students.

SoothingDave said:

Opinion taken. What I meant to say, other than "fancy" was that it was a "50-cent word" rather than the vulgar Anglo-Saxon ones. "Pharmacy," I believe comes from Greek, but "drug store" seems more common. It is descriptive and not requiring you to have a different vocabulary.

If you have a better term for me to use in the future for that (the common versus fancy Latin or Greek or French term) then please tell me and I will do so, to avoid confusion for the students.

Click to expand...

My only point was that "pharmacy" is not really considered to be a 50-cent word in AmE, but is used to describe a drug store that has a pharmacist on duty and is able to sell prescription drugs. "Drug store" is certainly often used colloquially to describe such a place, but there are many drug stores that do not sell prescription medications, only over-the-counter remedies along with ACE bandages, diabetic stockings, crutches/canes and other medical devices that do not require a prescription.