The word for today is…
elixir (noun) – 1. A sweetened aromatic solution of alcohol and water, serving as a vehicle for medicine.
2. (a) See philosophers’ stone.
(b) A substance believed to maintain life indefinitely. Also called elixir of life.
(c) A substance or medicine believed to have the power to cure all ills.
3. An underlying principle.
Source : The Free Dictionary
Etymology : Elixir has roots in the practice of alchemy; it was used in the Middle Ages as the word for a substance believed to be capable of changing base metals into gold. Its later use for a drug purported to prolong one’s life led to its use in the names of medicines of mostly questionable effectiveness. Today, it is often used generally for anything thought capable of remedying all ills or difficulties, be they physical or otherwise. The word came to us via Middle English and Medieval Latin from Arabic al-iks?r; it probably ultimately derives from Greek x?rion, meaning “desiccative powder.”
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