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The Learning Kingdom's Cool Word of the Day for July 26, 1999
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nostrum [n. NOS-trum]
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If a medicine contains secret ingredients, is highly recommended by
the person who prepared it, and lacks scientific proof that it works,
then it might be called a nostrum. A nostrum can also be a
questionable scheme or remedy for some vexing problem. Example:
"Senator Harvey's proposal for tax incentives was widely derided as
an expensive nostrum."
In the days of "patent medicine," there were traveling salesmen all
over North America, selling various kinds of mostly ineffective
nostrums. The word today implies quackery and fraud, but prior to
the nineteenth century its meaning was much more honest.
The word comes from a Latin phrase, "nostrum remedium" (our remedy),
and its root meaning is simply "ours." Starting in the early 1600s,
medicines were marked with the Latin phrase, to show that they were
the unique product of the maker.
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