nostrum
2
9.9
- noun
- /ˈnɑstrəm/
- Formal
:
remedio
- Many companies sell dubious nostrums that promise to cure serious illnesses.
Examples
-
He was skeptical of the latest health nostrum that claimed to boost energy with no side effects.
-
His wife had run off to California with an itinerant professor of half-baked nostrums peddled under the guise of economics.
Fiction book (1993) -
And I see you still buy this stupid nostrum.
-
"Credit expansion is not a nostrum to make people happy.
Blog text (16) -
The intellectual world is now tiring of its Victorian nostrums, and none too soon.
Academic text (2005) -
We have consumed the prescribed nostrums and tonics, and are less healthy than before.
Blog text (12) -
In many ways, education reform has brought us to such a reversal as it has marketed itself and its nostrums year after year.
Academic text (1999) -
Once one grasps that the equality of all "cultures" or ways of life is an empty nostrum, cultural recognition on demand becomes condescending and meaningless.
Academic text (1996) -
So, Flake's lessons learned are the emptiest economic nostrums of his party: pro-growth, low and stable taxes, and less regulation.
Blog text (14) -
Stanley was a hypochondriac, taking lots of prescription medications and more over-the-counter do-it-yourself nostrums.
Fiction book (1990)
Synonyms
61
6.0
A pill or treatment with no real medical effect used to test new drugs
7
8.0
A thing presented as helpful that does not work and tricks people
7
7.5
A medicine that people say cures every illness but often does not work
1
3.7
Care or medicine that does not make someone better
Compounds
How Effective
Surface Forms
Etymology
Nostrum comes from the old Latin phrase nostrum remedium, which meant 'our remedy' or 'our thing', a name sellers used for secret cures. That's why nostrum now means a medicine or quick solution that probably does not work or is sold with false claims.