nostrum: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

Follow Dictionary.com on Twitter. Word of the day, word trivia, unusual words, and more!
Word of the Day for Saturday, May 9, 2009 nostrum \NOS-truhm\, noun: 1. A medicine of secret composition and unproven or dubious effectiveness; a quack medicine. 2. A usually questionable remedy or scheme; a cure-all. James is put to work at country fairs, promoting a quack nostrum for pain relief. -- Patrick McGrath, "Heart of Ice", New York Times, April 13, 1997 His hopeful message attracted an audience eager to believe he had found the nostrum for all of society's ills. -- Warren Sloat, "Looking Back at 'Looking Backward': We Have Seen the Future and It Didn't Work", New York Times, January 17, 1988 Old ladies were always offering her their advice, recommending this or that nostrum. -- Charlotte Brontë, Shirley: A Tale Nostrum comes from Latin nostrum (remedium), "our (remedy)," from nos, "we." Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for nostrum Yesterday's Word - Previous Words - Help
Follow Dictionary.com on Twitter. Word of the day, word trivia, unusual words, and more!
Dictionary.com Word of the Day http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/ You are currently subscribed to Dictionary.com Word of the Day as: mayorjfvalley@gmail.com To unsubscribe via email, send a blank message to: leave-13815258-6044678G@lists.lexico.com To subscribe to Word of the Day by email, please send a blank message to: join-wordoftheday@lists.lexico.com ©2009 by Dictionary.com, LLC. 555 12th Street Suite 500 Oakland CA 94607 Subscriptions to The Word of the Day can be turned on and off via the Web at http://www.dictionary.com/help/faq/wordoftheday/   Tell a friend about The Word of the Day!