A solution or remedy for all difficulties or diseases — a universal cure, real or imagined.
From Greek panakeia (a cure-all), from Panakeia, daughter of Asklepios (god of medicine). Pan (all) + akos (remedy). Panacea was literally a goddess — the personification of universal remedy. Her name survives as a warning against believing in easy answers.
We named our word for "cure-all" after a goddess because we wanted universal remedies to be divine. They are not. Every panacea in history — from mercury to lobotomies to blockchain — promised to fix everything and fixed nothing. The word is a monument to wishful thinking.
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