ELECTUARY, in Pharmacy, a form of medicine composed of powders and other ingredients, incorporated with some conserve, honey, or syrup; to be divided into doses, like boluses, when taken.
Vossius observes, that all the remedies prescribed for the sick, as well as the confections taken by way of regale, were called by the Greeks ελιχμιατα, and ελιχμιατα, of the verb ελιχμια, "I like;" whence, says he, was formed the Latin electuarium, and afterwards electuarium. This conjecture he supports from the laws of Sicily, where it is ordained, that electuaries, syrups, and other remedies, be prepared after the legal manner. The Bollandists, who relate this etymology, seem to confirm it. For the composition and different sorts of electuaries. See PHARMACY.