assuage

WOTD – 29 September 2006    

English

Alternative forms

• (obsolete) asswage

Etymology

Middle English aswagen, from Old French assouagier "appease, calm", from Vulgar Latin assuaviare, derived from Latin ad- "ad-" + suavis "sweet".

Pronunciation

• IPA: /əˈsweɪdʒ/, X-SAMPA: /@"sweIdZ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  Hyphenation: as‧suage

• Rhymes: -eɪdʒ

Verb

assuage (third-person singular simple present assuages, present participle assuaging, simple past and past participle assuaged)

1. (transitive) To lessen the intensity of, to mitigate or relieve (hunger, emotion, pain etc.).
   • 1864 November 21, Abraham Lincoln (signed) or John Hay, letter to Mrs. Bixby in Boston

     I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost

2. (transitive) To pacify or soothe (someone).
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To calm down, become less violent (of passion, hunger etc.); to subside, to abate.

Derived terms

• assuagement
• assuager

Translations

mitigate, relieve

• Bulgarian: облекчавам (bg) (oblekčavam), смекчавам (bg) (smekčavam), успокоявам (bg) (uspokojavam)
• French: assouvir (fr), soulager (fr), apaiser (fr)
• Hungarian: csillapít (hu)
• Old English: liehtan

• Romanian: alina (ro)
• Russian: уменьшать (ru) (umenʹšátʹ), смягчать (ru) (smjaxčátʹ)
• Scots: dill, mease, suage (hunger, thirst)
• Spanish: calmar (feelings), aliviar (pain), mitigar (passion), satisfacer (desire)

pacify

• Bulgarian: успокоявам (bg) (uspokojavam), уталожвам (bg) (utaložvam)
• French: apaiser (fr), calmer (fr)
• German: besänftigen, beschwichtigen
• Hebrew: לשכך (he) (Leshakech)

• Old English: āswebban, stillan, þyllan
• Russian: успокаивать (ru) (uspokáivatʹ) impf., успокоить (ru) (uspokóitʹ) pf.
• Scots: mease, cowshin
• Spanish: apaciguar (es), sosegar (es), calmar (es)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

• Japanese: 和らげる（やわらげる, yawarageru）
• Kurdish: arimandin (ku), hedirandin (ku), hêwirandin (ku), aram kirin (ku), tebitandin (ku)
• Portuguese: acalmar

References

• assuage in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• assuage in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Anagrams

• sausage