Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913
Nostrum
Nos′trum (-trŭm), n.; pl. Nostrums (-trŭmz). [Neut. sing. of L. noster ours, fr. nos we. See Us.]
1. A medicine, the ingredients of which are kept secret for the purpose of restricting the profits of sale to the inventor or proprietor; a quack medicine.
2. Any scheme or device proposed by a quack.
The incentives of agitators, the arts of impostors and the nostrums of quacks. Brougham.