Patrick McGrathWarren Sloat
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"Whether there was real efficacy in these nostrums, and whether their author himself had faith in them, is more than can safely be said," wrote 19th-century American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, "but, at all events, the public believed in them." The word nostrum has often been linked to quack medicine and false hopes for miracle cures, but there's nothing deceitful about its etymology. It has been a part of English since at least the early 17th century, and it comes from the Latin noster, meaning "our" or "ours." Some think that specially prepared medicinal concoctions came to be called nostrums because their purveyors marketed them as "our own" remedy. In other words, the use of nostrum emphasized that such a potion was unique or exclusive to the pitchman peddling it.
Examples of nostrum in a Sentence
Tom Zeller Jr.
july 30, Literary Hub, 30 July 2025
His personal integrity conflicts with liberal nostrums, resulting in Fish and Poinsettia’s bizarre repulsion-attraction rapport.
—Armond White, National Review, 25 June 2025
Kennedy has promoted almost useless nostrums against measles, such as Vitamin A, while describing vaccination as a personal choice.
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 8 May 2025
Eight years later, Democrats have devolved into nostrums about appealing to the middle class, ditching academic language, and finding a uniting message.
—Alexander Nazaryan, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 21 Mar. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Nostrum.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nostrum. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.
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nostrum
noun
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