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nostrum Definition

nos·trum (näs′trəm)

noun

    1. a medicine prepared by the person selling it
    2. a patent medicine of a kind sold with exaggerated claims; quack medicine
  2. a pet scheme for solving some social or political problem; panacea

Etymology: L, neut. of noster, ours (< nos, we: see us): ? so called from the seller's calling it “our” remedy

nostrum Synonyms

nostrum

n.

formula, patent medicine, panacea; see medicine 2, remedy 2.

nostrum Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • accept: Human rights, in theory at least, have become an accepted nostrum throughout the world.

Adjective modifier

  • simple: I am indebted to my brother ( in the other National Trust ) for this glaringly simple nostrum.
  • neo-liberal: In Indonesia the state followed the very latest neo-liberal nostrums.
  • fashionable: In such a society, what use to the common people is the fashionable nostrum of writing off foreign debt?

Noun used with modifier

  • quack: James is put to work at country fairs, promoting a quack nostrum for pain relief.
nostrum Quotes

   Never under the most despotic of infidel Governments did I behold such squalid wretchedness as I have seen since my return, in the very heart of a Christian country. And what are your remedies? After months of inaction, and months of action worse than inactivity, at length comes forth the grand specificöthe never-failing nostrum of all state physicians from the days of Draco to the present time; death. Is there not blood enough upon your penal code that more must be poured forth to ascend to Heaven and testify against you?

—Rochdale