Word of the Day

: March 4, 2007

nostrum

noun NAHSS-trum

What It Means

1 : a medicine of secret composition recommended by its preparer but usually without scientific proof of its effectiveness

2 : a usually questionable remedy or scheme : panacea

nostrum in Context

Critics predict the mayor's plan to revitalize the downtown area by offering tax breaks to local businesses will prove a costly and ineffective nostrum.

Did You Know?

"In those thrilling days of yesteryear," declared a 1990 Consumer Reports article, "patent-medicine pitchmen and traveling salesmen blanketed the country, hustling notions and nostrums to gullible settlers." The word "nostrum" has often been so linked to quack medicine and false hopes for miracle cures, but there's nothing deceitful about its etymology. It has been a part of English since at least 1602, and comes from the Latin "noster," meaning "our" or "ours." Some people think that specially prepared medicinal concoctions came to be called "nostrums" because their purveyors marketed them as "our own" remedy. In other words, the use of "nostrum" emphasized that such a potion was unique or exclusive to the pitchman peddling it.

*Indicates the sense illustrated by the example sentence.