A medicine for headache

[solito.livejournal.com]

Please note that in the English language you say "a medicine for headache" while in Russian the preposition is от - "Лекарство от головной боли".  If you say by mistake "Лекарство для головной боли", your Russian counterpart will understand it like "A medicine to produce headache". But it's OK to say "Лекарство для лечения чего-либо" or "Лекарство против чего-либо"

Лекарство от...
Лекарство для лечения...
Лекарство против... (colloquial)

Usage examples:
Сынок, ты случайно не видел, где мои таблетки от давления - Sonny, have you seen by chance my pills for the blood pressure.
(в аптеке) У вас есть что-нибудь от головы? - (at the pharmacy) Do you have anything for the head(ache)?
Человечество упорно ищет лекарство против СПИДа - Mankind persistently seeks a medicine for AIDS.
Новый шампунь против перхоти совсем не помогает - The new anti-dandruff shampoo does not help at all.
Есть средства для лечения диабета, но ни одно из них не вылечивает - There are drugs to cure diabetes but none cures it completely.
Лучшее средство от любви - новая любовь - The best remedy for love is a new love.

Comments

Re: против "против"

[nbuwe.livejournal.com]

I know this is unscientific, but yandex search turns up 300K hits for "лекарство от" vs. 41K hits for "лекарство против".

Also, I don't think you'd object that "лечить против" is wrong (correct is "лечить от"). Hence my point that "лекарство против" is a recent contamination. I.e. my point is that language is changing and that particular form is still to make its way into the language norm.

You make a far stronger statement that "лекарство против" is *vanilla* Russian. Why do you need to *insist* on that very strong statement, while still invoking "language is changing" argument is still beyond me.

*plonk*