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A nostrum is an idea someone puts forward as an easy answer to a hard problem, when it probably will not help much at all. Writers in newspapers like the word: a political nostrum, the old nostrums about 'just try harder'.
A nostrum is一個nostrum指的是 an idea一個想法——someone puts forward有人提出來的，as an easy answer to a hard problem當作對一個難題的簡單答案，when it probably will not help much at all但它大概根本幫不上什麼忙。Writers in newspapers報紙上的作家 like the word喜歡用這個詞：a political nostrum像是「一個政治上的nostrum」，the old nostrums about 'just try harder'那些老講「再努力一點就好」的nostrums。
It is a cool, slightly sharp word — you use it when you do not trust the cure.
It is這是 a cool, slightly sharp word一個冷冷的、帶點尖銳的詞——you use it你會用它 when you do not trust the cure當你不相信那個解方的時候。
Though actually it began as a medicine word. Latin nostrum means 'ours'. People selling homemade remedies labelled them as 'our own special mix', and the name stuck first to doubtful , then to doubtful ideas.
Though actually不過其實 it began as a medicine word它最早是個藥的詞。Latin nostrum拉丁文的nostrum means意思是 'ours'「我們的」。People selling homemade remedies賣自製偏方的人 labelled them as把它們標成 'our own special mix'「我們自己的特調配方」，and the name stuck first to doubtful cures這個名字就先黏在那些可疑的藥方上，then to doubtful ideas後來又黏到可疑的想法上。
You can still meet the older medicine sense in careful writing, but the sense you will meet most now is the easy fix that is not a fix. It is not playground English; it belongs to news, essays, and argument.
You can still meet你還是可能遇到 the older medicine sense比較舊的藥的意思 in careful writing在講究一點的文章裡，but the sense you will meet most now不過你現在最常遇到的意思 is就是 the easy fix that is not a fix那種「看似簡單其實解決不了問題」的辦法。It is not這不是 playground English操場上的口語英文；it belongs to它屬於 news, essays, and argument新聞、文章和辯論的場合。
組成A learned borrowing from Latin nostrum, 'ours', the neuter form of noster, 'our'. A label that once meant 'our own (remedy)'.
原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
nostrumnoun/ˈnɒs.tɹəm/
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A medicine or remedy in conventional use which has not been proven to have any desirable medical effects.
- Near-synonyms: paternoster, patent medicine, snake oil
- Nay, he would sometimes retire hither to take his beer, and it was not without difficulty that he was prevented from forcing Jones to take his beer too: for no quack ever held his nostrum to be a more general panacea than he did this; which, he said, had more virtue in it than was in all the physic in an apothecary's shop.
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An ineffective but favorite remedy for a problem, usually involving political action.
- reformers of church charities [...made] known […] their different nostrums for setting Hiram's Hospital on its feet again.
- And not because some clatch of bureaucrats in Strasbourg or Luxembourg have issued yet another directive, but because Europeans are recognising that 19th century nostrums are not solutions to 21st century problems—on the contrary, they are the problem—and it's time to encourage competition, risk taking, democracy and meritocracy, and, dare I say it, dreaming about a different, better future.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。