Nostrum

Etymology
From nostrum:, nominative neuter of noster:.

Noun

 * 1) A medicine or remedy in conventional use which has not been proven to have any desirable medical effects.
 * 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 his nostrum 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.
 * 1) * 1890, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of the Four
 * 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 quack nostrums, some of which he bore about in a leather case in his pocket.
 * 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 quack nostrums, some of which he bore about in a leather case in his pocket.

Coordinate terms

 * cure-all
 * panacea
 * patent medicine
 * snake oil

Translations

 * Finnish:
 * French: poudre de perlimpimpin, remède de bonne femme , orviétan


 * Polish: lekarstwo na wszystko, nostrum, panaceum
 * Spanish: remedio milagroso, droga de charlatán

Etymology 1
Inflected form of nos:.

Pronoun

 * 1) of us;

Alternative forms

 * nostrī

Etymology 2
Inflected form of noster:.

Descendants

 * English:

nostrum nostrum nostrum nostrum nostrum nostrum nostrum nostrum nostrum nostrum nostrum nostrum nostrum nostrum