• palliative •
Pronunciation: pæl-i-yê-tiv • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective, Noun
Meaning: 1. (Adjective) Reducing pain or suffering, ameliorating, improving. 2. (Noun) Anything that reduces pain or suffering or improves a situation without offering a permanent cure or solution.
Notes: Today's Good Word is the adjective of the verb palliate "to help, ameliorate, reduce bad effects". As a Latinate verb, the process noun palliation is available alongside the agent noun, palliative. This word has a synonym from the same verb, palliatory, which is occasionally used instead of today's word. Both have adverbs; for instance, medicine may be used palliatively or palliatorily.
In Play: Today's Good Word basically refers to agents that reduce physical or mental pain: "I wish aspirin were a palliative for the pains-in-the-neck I have to work with at the office." However, any improvement that does not solve a problem may be a palliative: "Closing the street would only be a palliative for the damage the potholes are doing to cars traveling over it."
Word History: Today's Good Word is the adjective of the verb palliate from Latin palliare "to cloak, palliate", a verb based on the noun pallium "cloak". Pallium is an extension of palla "upper garment worn by women", also the origin of English pall. These words all came from a predecessor, pol-/pel- "skin, pelt, covering", in Proto-Indo-European, the ancient language from which most European and Indian languages developed. In French we find it as peau "skin" and poil "body hair". The Ps in this language changed to Fs in English and other Germanic languages (Latin pater, English father), so this root came to English and German as Fell "pelt", though the English word is now rather archaic.
PALLIATIVE
- Slava
- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 8082
- Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
- Location: Finger Lakes, NY
PALLIATIVE
Today's Good Word was AWOL from the Agora, so I've dragged it back, kicking and yelling. Here it is:
Re: PALLIATIVE
The heart asks pleasure first,
And then, excuse from pain;
And then, those little anodynes
That deaden suffering;
And then, to go to sleep;
And then, if it should be
The will of its Inquisitor,
The liberty to die.
By Emily Dickinson
And then, excuse from pain;
And then, those little anodynes
That deaden suffering;
And then, to go to sleep;
And then, if it should be
The will of its Inquisitor,
The liberty to die.
By Emily Dickinson
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 2784
- Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:41 am
- Location: Texas
Re: PALLIATIVE
MTC seems to like Emily Dickinson. If I were allowed to read only one extra-Biblical poet, I would choose her. She was a rare flower, both as a poet and a person.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.
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