mithridate

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mithridate

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• mithridat, mithrydate, mitridat, mitridate, mithrydat
• methridat, methridate, metridat, metridate, medridate, methredate
• mythridate

From Middle English mitridate and methridat, from Old French mithridat, from Late Latin mithridatum and mithridatium, from Latin Mithridātīus (“of or related to Mithridates”), from Mithridātēs + -ius, from Ancient Greek Μιθριδάτης (Mithridátēs), the Greek form of the name of Mithridates VI of Pontus. Doublet of mithridatium, mithridatum, and mithridaticon.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪθrəˌdeɪt/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪθrɪdeɪt/

mithridate (countable and uncountable, plural mithridates)

1. (historical, pharmacology) Any of various historical medicine, typically an electuary compounded with various poison, believed to derive from Mithridates VI and to serve as a universal antidote.
   • 1528, Joannes de Mediolano, translated by Thomas Paynell, Regimen Sanitatis Salerni, page 33:

     Auicen saythe; There be certeyne medicins... which wyl not suffre poyson to approche nere the harte, as triacle and Metridate.

   • 1676, Richard Wiseman, “Of Lepra or Elephantiasis”, in Several Chirurgicall Treatises, London: Printed by E. Flesher and J Macock, for R Royston , and B Took , →OCLC, 1st book (A Treatise of Tumours), page 139:

     After I had thus evacuated the Plethora, and diſpoſed her body for Mercurialls more operative, I gave her each morning and evening a few grains of Mercur. diaphoret. in a bolus with conſ. lujule and Mithridate [...]

   • 1686, Thomas D'Urfey, Common-wealth of Women, act V, scene ii, line 47:

     Fools may talk of Mythridate, Cordials, Elixers...

   • 1990, Harold Leo Klawans, Newton's Madness, page 127:

     What he wanted, in effect, was a universal antidote, which medical science has for years referred to as a mithridate.

   1. (archaic, figuratively, by extension) Synonym of cure.
      • 1587, Angell Day translating Longus as Daphnis and Chloe, sig. C3v:

        The contemplation was a mithridate to a pestered conceipted minde.

      • 1592, John Lyly, Midas..., act IV, scene iv, line 47:

        That which maketh me most both to sorrow and wonder, is that musick (a methridat for melancholy) should make him mad.

2. (obsolete, rare) Ellipsis of mithridate mustard.

• mithridatium, mithridatum, mithridaticon, mithridate treacle, see also theriac

• “mithridate, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022.