What is the origin of pharmacists being called 'yakuzaishi' in japanese? Is there some relation to the yakuza?


I was doing a quick google translate search to look for the Japanese word for
pharmacist. Turns out it is yakuzaishi. Ishi means doctor & Yakuza is
obviously the well-known criminal syndicate. It beats me as to how this
combination of words came to be regarded as the word for pharmacists in
Japanese! Does it stand for a criminal doctor / useless doctor!!?




No, there is no connection between the words. The phonetic sharing of 'ya',
'ku' and 'za' is just a coincidence.

The word ヤクザ is thought to have derived from the scoring system of gambling
games ([see this explanation](http://gogen-
allguide.com/ya/yakuza.html#:%7E:text=%E3%80%90%E3%83%A4%E3%82%AF%E3%82%B6%E3%81%AE%E8%AA%9E%E6%BA%90%E3%83%BB%E7%94%B1%E6%9D%A5%E3%80%91,%E3%81%AE%E3%81%8C%E5%A7%8B%E3%81%BE%E3%82%8A%E3%81%A7%E3%81%82%E3%82%8B%E3%80%82)),
with the numbers 8, 9, 3 (= ya, ku, za) being an unwanted or useless
combination. This is thought to be the origin of the name of the criminal
gangs which became known as yakuza.

The word 薬剤師 (やくざい+し) is composed of the base word 薬剤 (medicine) and a suffix
師 (teacher, specialist). So the word simply means 'a specialist in medicines',
which we now call 'pharmacist'. It is completely unrelated to the word ヤクザ.

In Japanese, there are many cases where there is a coincidental sharing of
sounds which have no actual etymological connection.

