Pharm. Forms: pl. 6 troschies, (trocis), 7 trosches, trotches, 7–8 trochies, 7– troches; sing. 7 trosche, 7– troch, troche. [An altered form of TROCHISK, originating in the plural troschies, trochies, taken as trosches, troches, implying a sing. troschie, trochie, in vulgar and commercial use often pronounced and sometimes written trochee, like TROCHEE. The spellings trosch, troche simulate French, and the pronunciation is conformed to that of L. trochiscus.] A flat round tablet or lozenge, made of some medicinal substance powdered, worked into a paste with mucilage or the like, and dried; = TROCHISK.
α. 1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. ccxcvi. 696. Troschies, or little flat cakes.
1714. Phil. Trans., XXIX. 68. The Trochies made of the Gall … a Cordial Sudorifick.
β. 1601. Holland, Pliny, XX. xviii. II. 68. There bee certaine ordinarie trosches made of Poppie seed beaten into pouder, which with milke are … vsed by way of a liniment to bring sicke patients to sleepe.
1639. T. de Gray, Compl. Horsem., 234. Make of it little cakes or trotches, as broad as a groat.
1656. Ridgley, Pract. Physick, 260. Troches of Capers, of Harts-tongue.
1681. Grew, Musæum, III. I. v. 297. A little round, flat, and blackish Stone, resembling a Medicinal Troch.
1769. Pennant, Zool., III. 22. The medicine was … given in form of a powder or troche.
1811. A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp. (1818), 709. Trochisci. Troches … are little cakes or tablets composed of powders combined with sugar and mucilage.
[1857. Dunglison, Med. Lex., Trochiscus..., a troch or round table…; a solid medicine, prepared of powders, incorporated by means of mucilage, crumb of bread, juices of plants, &c.]
1875. H. C. Wood, Therap. (1879), 19. Troches, or lozenges, are gummy pellets or disks, so made as to dissolve slowly in the mouth.
