panacea
noun
- cure-all
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˌpæn.əˈsiː.ə/
name
Etymology: From Ancient Greek Πανακεια (Panakeia, literally “all-curing”).
- The goddess/personification of healing, remedies, cures and panaceas (medicines, salves, ointments and other curatives). She is a daughter of Asclepius and Epione.
noun
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”).
- A remedy believed to cure all disease and prolong life that was originally sought by alchemists; a cure-all.
- A solution to all problems.
“A monorail will be a panacea for our traffic woes.”
“When busy he was better, and appeared to think perpetual motion a panacea for his unnamed and un-nameable complaint; and so much were they hurried from place to place, after their arrival at Genoa, that both sisters were thankful when they embarked again, as the sea appeared a resting-place...”
- The plant allheal (Valeriana officinalis), believed to cure all ills.
“There, whether it diuine Tobacco were, / Or Panachæa, or Polygony, / She found, and brought it to her patient deare […]”