panacea

Alternative forms

• panacaea
• panacæa

Etymology

From Latin panacēa, from Ancient Greek πανάκεια (panákeia), from πανακής (panakḗs, “all-healing”), from πᾶν (pân, “all”) (equivalent to English pan-) + ἄκος (ákos, “cure”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) enPR: păn"ə-sē'ə, IPA^(key): /ˌpæn.əˈsiː.ə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːə

Noun

panacea (plural panaceas or panaceæ)

1. A remedy believed to cure all disease and prolong life that was originally sought by alchemists; a cure-all.
2. Something that will solve all problems.

   A monorail will be a panacea for our traffic woes.

3. (obsolete) A particular plant believed to provide a cure-all.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.v:

     There, whether it diuine Tobacco were, / Or Panachæa, or Polygony, / She found, and brought it to her patient deare [...].

See also

• nostrum

Etymology

From Latin panacēa, from Ancient Greek πανάκεια (panákeia), from πανακής (panakḗs, “all-healing”), from πᾶν (pân, “all”) + ἄκος (ákos, “cure”).

Noun

panacea f (plural panacee)

1. panacea, cure-all

Etymology

From Ancient Greek πανάκεια (panákeia), from πανακής (panakḗs, “all-healing”), from πᾶν (pân, “all”) + ἄκος (ákos, “cure”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /pa.naˈkeː.a/

Noun

panacēa f (genitive panacēae); first declension

1. A particular kind of plant, believed to cure all diseases.
2. panacea, catholicon.

References

• panacea in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• panacea in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• panacea in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• panacea in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Etymology

From Latin panacēa, Ancient Greek πανάκεια (panákeia), from πανακής (panakḗs, “all-healing”), from πᾶν (pân, “all”) + ἄκος (ákos, “cure”).

Noun

panacea f (plural panaceas)

1. panacea