mithridate

• mithridat, mithrydate, mitridat, mitridate, mithrydat
• methridat, methridate, metridat, metridate, medridate, methredate
• mythridate

From Middle English mitridate and methridat, from Old French mithridat, from Late Latin mithridatum and mithridatium, from Latin Mithridātīus (“of or related to Mithridates”), from Mithridātēs + -ius, from Ancient Greek Μιθριδάτης (Mithridátēs), the Greek form of the name of Mithridates VI of Pontus. Doublet of mithridatium, mithridatum, and mithridaticon.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪθrəˌdeɪt/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪθrɪdeɪt/

mithridate (countable and uncountable, plural mithridates)

1. (historical medicine) Any of various historical medicines—typically an electuary compounded with various poisons—believed to derive from Mithridates VI and to serve as a universal antidote.
   • 1528, Joannes de Mediolano, translated by Thomas Paynell, Regimen Sanitatis Salerni, page 33:

     Auicen saythe; There be certeyne medicins... which wyl not suffre poyson to approche nere the harte, as triacle and Metridate.

   • 1686, Thomas D'Urfey, Common-wealth of Women, act V, scene ii, line 47:

     Fools may talk of Mythridate, Cordials, Elixers...

   • 1990, Harold Leo Klawans, Newton's Madness, page 127:

     What he wanted, in effect, was a universal antidote, which medical science has for years referred to as a mithridate.

   • 1676, Richard Wiseman, “Of Lepra or Elephantiasis”, in Several Chirurgicall Treatises, London: Printed by E. Flesher and J[ohn] Macock, for R[ichard] Royston […], and B[enjamin] Took […], →OCLC, 1st book (A Treatise of Tumours), page 139:

     After I had thus evacuated the Plethora, and diſpoſed her body for Mercurialls more operative, I gave her each morning and evening a few grains of Mercur. diaphoret. in a bolus with conſ. lujule and Mithridate [...]

2. (figurative, now rare) Synonym of cure.
   • 1587, Angell Day translating Longus as Daphnis and Chloe, sig. C3v:

     The contemplation was a mithridate to a pestered conceipted minde.

   • 1592, John Lyly, Midas..., act IV, scene iv, line 47:

     That which maketh me most both to sorrow and wonder, is that musick (a methridat for melancholy) should make him mad.

3. (rare, obsolete) Ellipsis of mithridate mustard.

• mithridatium, mithridatum, mithridaticon, mithridate treacle, see also theriac

• “mithridate, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2022.