Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A medicine whose effectiveness is unproved and whose ingredients are usually secret; a quack remedy.
- n. A favorite but usually ineffective remedy for problems or evils.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A medicine the ingredients of which, and the method of compounding them, are kept secret, for the purpose of restricting the profits of sale to the inventor or proprietor; especially, a quack medicine.
- n. Hence Any scheme or device of a quack or charlatan.
Wiktionary
- n. A medicine or remedy in conventional use which has not been proven to have any desirable medical effects.
- n. An ineffective but favorite remedy for a problem, usually involving political action.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A medicine, the ingredients of which are kept secret for the purpose of restricting the profits of sale to the inventor or proprietor; a quack medicine.
- n. Any scheme or device proposed by a quack.
- n. Any scheme asserted to solve a problem, but with no objective basis for belief in its effectiveness; esp., in politics, a scheme or proposal likely to prove popular with voters.
WordNet 3.0
- n. hypothetical remedy for all ills or diseases; once sought by the alchemists
- n. patent medicine whose efficacy is questionable
Etymologies
- From Latin nostrum ("ours"), nominative neuter of noster ("our, ours"). (Wiktionary)
- From Latin nostrum (remedium), our (remedy), neuter of noster; see nes-2 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“At the end of the day, discounting products is nothing more than a short-term nostrum for a problem that is much more severe and will benefit no one in the end if it isn't accompanied by making sure that there were patients to inject these products into.”
“Jail is the conventional and time-honored nostrum, which is administered with a glow of moral self-esteem, and no more thought about it.”
“The nostrum, in fact truism, that countries cannot really devalue their way to prosperity is important to bear in mind.”
The Wall Street Journal: The Down Side of Very Low Interest Rates Over Time
“None of this is surprising, though it does dismantle the liberal nostrum that a new entitlement will somehow reduce health spending.”
“May I take this opportunity to wish all NLM readers a very happy and blessed Easter, in the words of the EF Martyrology: Hac die, quam fecit Dominus, Solemnitas solemnitatum, et Pascha nostrum: Resurrectio Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi secundum carnem.”
“It was said to be a nostrum for "haemorrhage, dysentery, diarrohea, poisoning, plague, and nosebleeds.”
The Huffington Post: Richard Bangs: Here Be Dragons: Mt. Pilatus in Switzerland, Part 3
“Privatization" is a crowd-pleasing nostrum for public officials seeking to shed the budgetary cost of programs and services that they nevertheless know to be a public responsibility.”
“It's a nostrum of medical education that the patient's history provides the diagnosis ninety per cent of the time, the examination nine percent of the time, and lab tests one per cent of the time.”
“The conservative nostrum of "personal responsibility" is, thus, being taken to a whole new extreme.”
“There were so many changes to measure that Google discarded the traditional scientific nostrum that only one experiment should be conducted at a time, with all variables except the one tested being exactly the same in the control group and the experimental group.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘nostrum’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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sdamle1
echt
echt, apocalypse, resurgence, forthright, logorrhea, mercurial, torrid, exorcise, obscure, intrusive, morose, vindictive and 94 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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phrontistery - n
from phrontistery.info
nacarat, nacelle, nacket, nacre, nacreous, naevus, naiant, nail, nainsook, naissant, nanism, nanization and 340 more...
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Tristram Shandy
souse, meet, sententious, propound, boot, casuistry, avoirdupois, akimbo, disport, lenity, succussation, sweetbread and 155 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 503 more...
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N
letters starting with n
nadir, naive, narcissist, nascent, natation, natty, nauseate, nautical, nebulous, necromancy, nefarious, negate and 24 more...
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words-for-apocalipstick
all your words are belong to me.
sybaritic, cacography, scatterbrain, extravaganza, fenestra, kaleidophone, machination, mudpuppy, saturnalia, Bacchanalia, ersatz, fictile and 58 more...
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pseudoscience
craniology, craniometer, cranioscopy, phlegmatic, sanguine, melancholic, choleric, homeopathy, allopathy, metoposcopy, panacea, catholicon and 24 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1824 more...
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GRE Reference
A list of words unfamiliar to me that I have repeatedly encountered in GRE question sets.
parochial, clique, salacious, aegis, ostracize, conceited, sacrilegious, inane, serendipity, gourmand, polemic, tenuous and 138 more...
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GRE Words
orotund, mendacious, inimical, foment, contumacious, abrogate, arrogate, syncretism, abate, abdication, aberration, abeyance and 123 more...
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Verba Dilecta
delectable, notate, pauciloquy, paucity, pauciloquent, paucify, interscapilium, uropygium, inferna, nota, equipollent, prepollent and 677 more...
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Chennessy's Words
philistine, messianic, dyad, cult, bourgeois, blot, ploy, polyglot, lingua franca, cumbersome, lumber, petit-bourgeois and 446 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for nostrum.
yarb Citation on crawler. Sep 18, 2008
cosmican Meaning: A usually questionable remedy or scheme ; panacea Nov 19, 2007
cosmican This experiment is an ineffective nostrum. Nov 19, 2007
trivet snake oil Apr 19, 2007