Antidote

The story of the word

ἀντίδοτον is a passive participle with a preposition in front: the thing given against something else. The most famous one is mithridatium, named for Mithridates VI of Pontus, who reportedly took small doses of every poison he could obtain until nothing would kill him, which became a problem when he wanted to die. English had the word by the early fifteenth century and was using it figuratively almost at once.

How it travelled

Ancient Greek → Latin → French → English

First recorded

15th century