Officinalis, or officinale, is a Medieval Latin epithet denoting organisms—mainly plants—with uses in medicine, herbalism and cookery. It commonly occurs as a specific epithet, the second term of a two-part botanical name. Officinalis is used to modify masculine and feminine nouns, while officinale is used for neuter nouns.
The word Latin: officinalis literally means 'of or belonging to an ', the storeroom of a monastery, where medicines and other necessaries were kept.[1] Latin: Officīna was a contraction of Latin: opificīna, from (gen. Latin: opificis) 'worker, maker, doer' (from Latin: opus 'work') +,, 'one who does', from Latin: facere 'do, perform'.[2] When Linnaeus invented the binomial system of nomenclature, he gave the specific name officinalis, in the 1735 (1st Edition) of his Latin: [[Systema Naturae]], to plants (and sometimes animals) with an established medicinal, culinary, or other use.[3]