excipient

In the long sheet of information folded tightly and crammed into a box of pills, lactose is identified as an “inert” or “excipient” ingredient.

The body or prescription contains the following: the Basis, or principal active ingredient; the Adjuvant, or Auxiliary, to assist its action; the Corrective, to correct or diminish some undesirable quality; the Vehicle, or Excipient, to give a suitable form for administration.

Excipient, ek-sip′i-ent, n. a substance mixed with a medicine to give it consistence, or used as a vehicle for its administration.

Gum tragacanth is used in calico-printing as a thickener of colours and mordants; in medicine as a demulcent and vehicle for insoluble powders, and as an excipient in pills; and for setting and mending beetles and other insect specimens.

Hostes Ecclesiae eos lacessere non verebuntur, nunc eis objicientes errores quos Pontifices aut docuisse, aut sua agendi ratione probasse, dicuntur et risu excipient responsa quae sola afferri possint.—Eo ipso definitur in globo quidquid per diplomata apostolica huc usque definitum est....