English

Proper noun

Panacea

1. (Greek mythology) The goddess/personification of healing, remedies, cures and panaceas (medicines, salves, ointments and other curatives). She is a daughter of Asclepius and Epione.

Coordinate terms

• (Parents): Asclepius, Epione
• (Sisters): Aceso, Aglaea, Hygieia, Iaso, Meditrina
• (Brothers): Machaon, Podaleirios, Telesphoros, Aratus

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• panacaea
• panacæa

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 [...].

Synonyms

• (remedy to cure all disease): catholicon, cure-all, elixir
• (plant): allheal, woundwort

Translations

See also

• nostrum

Italian

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

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/

Noun

panacēa f ‎(genitive panacēae); first declension

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

Inflection

First declension.

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
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “panacea”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: 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”).

Noun

panacea f ‎(plural panaceas)

1. panacea