Learned borrowing fromLatinnostrum(“ours”), nominative neuter ofnoster(“our, ours”).
nostrum (pluralnostrumsornostra)
- Amedicine orremedy inconventional use which has not beenproven to have anydesirablemedicaleffects.
- Synonym:nostrum remedium
- Coordinate terms:placebo,panacea
- Near-synonyms:paternoster,patent medicine,snake oil
1749,Henry Fielding, chapter II, inThe History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume(please specify |volume=I to VI), London:A[ndrew] Millar, […],→OCLC, book V:Nay, he would sometimes retire hither to take his beer, and it was not without difficulty that he was prevented from forcing Jones to take his beer too: for no quack ever held hisnostrum to be a more general panacea than he did this; which, he said, had more virtue in it than was in all the physic in an apothecary's shop.
1833,James Rennie, “The Word Gardening”, inAlphabet of Scientific Gardening for the Use of Beginners, London: William Orr, page 2:In precisely the same way does a quack doctor prescribe his infalliblenostrum to every patient, without taking into account differences of constitution, or [...]
1890 February,A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Story of the Bald-headed Man”, inThe Sign of Four (Standard Library), London: Spencer Blackett […],→OCLC,page69:I stammered out some few halting words of congratulation and then sat downcast, with my head drooped, deaf to the babble of our new acquaintance. He was clearly a confirmed hypochondriac, and I was dreamily conscious that he was pouring forth interminable trains of symptoms, and imploring information as to the composition and action of innumerable quacknostrums, some of which he bore about in a leather case in his pocket.
1961,Harry E. Wedeck,Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page165:Manynostrums and traditional medicaments are mentioned throughout Greek literature as aphrodisiac stimulants.
2004 August 25, “Find your thrill on blueberry hill”, inAlan Rusbridger, editor,The Guardian[1], London:Guardian News & Media,→ISSN,→OCLC:The latest nutraceuticalnostrum could come from the blueberry. Pterostilbene, a compound derived from the fruit, shows promise as a compound to lower cholesterol with few side effects, Agnes Rimando, of the US Department of Agriculture natural products team in Oxford, Mississippi, told the American Chemical Society.- (Can wearchive thisURL?)
- (by extension) Anineffective butfavoriteremedy for a problem, usually involvingpolitical action.
- Coordinate terms:panacea,cure-all
1996,Louis Rossetto, “19th Century Nostrums are not Solutions to 21st Century Problems”, inMute, volume 1, number 4,→ISSN:And not because some clatch of bureaucrats in Strasbourg or Luxembourg have issued yet another directive, but because Europeans are recognising that 19th centurynostrums are not solutions to 21st century problems—on the contrary, they are the problem—and it's time to encourage competition, risk taking, democracy and meritocracy, and, dare I say it, dreaming about a different, better future.
2006 November 22, Tania Branigan, quotingGreg Clark, “Cameron told: it's time to ditch Churchill”, inThe Guardian[2]:In a paper being published today, he writes: "The traditional Conservative vision of welfare as a safety net encompasses another outdated Torynostrum - that poverty is absolute, not relative.[…]
2009, A.C. Grayling,Ideas That Matter: A Personal Guide for the 21st Century:Neocons have far more interest in foreign policy than domestic policy. As regards the latter the reflexnostrums of right-wing attitudes apply: less tax, less government, libertarianism about matters such as gun control, encouragement of individual responsibility in health care and education, 'faith-based solutions' to social and welfare problems, and so forth.
2011, Sean Corrigan,The Wasteland[3]:With the glaring failure to predict even the possibility—much less circumstance—of the recent Crash and with the even more foreseeable failure of its tired old, rehashednostrums of ending the slump by means of an inequitable programme of corporate welfare, inflationary "unorthodoxy", and the unleashing of the debt-spewing monster of the state to gorge itself upon such things as individuals and private concerns no longer care to consumer, it should hardly be controversial to asset that mainstream macroeconomics—and the reputations of the many panderers to power who practice it—are equally broken.
2022,China Miéville, chapter 4, inA Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto,→OCLC:This is not least because a permeable membrane exists between the questioning of certainnostrums of the system, and questioning that systemin its entirety.
medicine or remedy which has not been proven to have any desirable medical effects
ineffective but favorite remedy for a problem, especially political
Inflected form ofnōs(“we”).
nostrum
- ofus;partitivegenitive ofnōs
Inflected form ofnoster(“our, ours”).
nostrum
- inflection ofnoster:
- nominative/accusative/vocativeneutersingular
- accusativemasculinesingular
