panacea

English

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

• enPR: păn'-ə-sēʹ-ə, IPA^(key): /ˌpæn.əˈsiː.ə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːə

Noun

panacea (plural panaceas or panaceae or panaceæ)

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

   Synonym: heal-all

2. A solution to all problems.

   A monorail will be a panacea for our traffic woes.

   • 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXVII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. , volume II, London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC, page 53:

     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...

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 206:

     Podson was seated on the bed, going through such turf forecasts as he could find in the papers; his panacea for correcting the mistakes of fortune.

   • 2023 January 11, “Network News: MPs seek clarity on hydrogen's role”, in RAIL, number 974, page 13:

     Hydrogen is not a panacea for reaching the zero net emissions target by 2050, but it can grow to become "a big niche" fuel in particular sectors and applications, claims a new report.

3. (obsolete) The plant allheal (Valeriana officinalis), believed to cure all ills.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

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

Synonyms

• (remedy to cure all disease): catholicon, cure-all, elixir, wonder drug, miracle cure, theriac, balm of Gilead
• (solution to all problems): miracle, magic bullet, silver bullet
• (plant): allheal, woundwort

Hyponyms

• (remedy to cure all disease): See mithridate and theriac (universal antidotes)

Translations

See also

• nostrum

Catalan

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic)
• IPA^(key): (Valencian)

Noun

panacea f (plural panacees)

1. panacea

Further reading

• “panacea” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Italian

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pa.naˈt͡ʃɛ.a/
• Rhymes: -ɛa
• Hyphenation: pa‧na‧cè‧a

Noun

panacea f (plural panacee)

1. panacea, cure-all

Latin

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/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /pa.naˈt͡ʃe.a/,

Noun

panacēa f (genitive panacēae); first declension

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

Declension

First-declension noun.

Derived terms

• panacinus

Descendants

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

Spanish

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /panaˈθea/
• IPA^(key): (Latin America) /panaˈsea/
• Rhymes: -ea
• Syllabification: pa‧na‧ce‧a

Noun

panacea f (plural panaceas)

1. panacea

Further reading

• “panacea”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014