Mithridat

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An ancient compound antidote once believed to protect the taker against nearly every kind of poison
2. A legendary all-purpose remedy taken in small doses to build immunity against a wide range of toxins
3. A universal antidote of early medicine, prepared from many ingredients and thought to guard against poisoning

Etymology: Mithridates VI, king of Pontus in northern Asia Minor, was said to fear poisoning so much that he took small, rising doses of toxins until his body could resist them. When Pompey's forces overran his kingdom, Pliny the Elder records, they found his private papers holding the recipe for his antidote. The formula, a mixture of many ingredients, became famous across the ancient and medieval worlds, and the king's name became attached to any such universal remedy. The name passed through Medieval Latin as "mithridatum" and then into French and English, where it denoted a complex compound medicine closely related to theriac, the older and better-known antidote blend.