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palliate

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 16 June 2010

Etymology

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The verb was inherited from Middle English palliaten (“To palliate (a disease), relieve the symptoms of (a patient); to extenuate (an offense); to conceal, hide”), the adjective and participle from its participle palliat(e); further borrowed either from Middle French pallier or directly from Latin palliātus, perfect passive participle of palliō (“to cover with a cloak”)), from pallium (“a cloak”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): (verb) /ˈpælieɪt/
    • Audio (US):(file)
    • Rhymes: -ælieɪt
  • IPA(key): (adjective) /ˈpæliət/

Verb

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palliate (third-person singular simple present palliates, present participle palliating, simple past and past participle palliated)

  1. To relieve the symptoms of; to ameliorate. [from 15th c.]
    • 2009, Boris Johnson, The Evening Standard, 15 Jan 09:
      And if there are some bankers out there who are still embarrassed by the size of their bonuses, then I propose that they palliate their guilt by giving to the Mayor's Fund for London to help deprived children in London.
  2. (obsolete) To hide or disguise. [16th–19th c.]
  3. (figurative) To cover or disguise the seriousness of (a mistake, offence etc.) by excuses and apologies. [from 17th c.]
    • April 5 1628, Bishop Joseph Hall, The Blessings, Sins, and Judgments of God's Vineyard
      We extenuate not our guilt : whatever we sin , we condemn it as mortal : they palliate wickedness , with the fair pretence of veniality
    • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 10, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC, page 164:
      The young clergyman, after a few hours of privacy, was sensible that the disorder of his nerves had hurried him into an unseemly outbreak of temper, which there had been nothing in the physician's words to excuse or palliate.
  4. (obsolete) To lessen the severity of; to extenuate, moderate, qualify. [17th–18th c.]
    • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXXVI, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 300:
      "Ah, dearest!" replied he, "your spirits are exhausted,—perhaps unconsciously oppressed with the idea of that future whose pain and whose peril I have rather heightened than palliated."
    • 1924, Herman Melville, chapter 18, in Billy Budd‎[1], London: Constable & Co.:
      If, mindless of palliating circumstances, we are bound to regard the death of the Master-at-arms as the prisoner's deed, then does that deed constitute a capital crime whereof the penalty is a mortal one?
  5. To placate or mollify. [from 17th c.]
    • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 65:
      Bradly stopped dead, too confounded to be appalled. Young Podson! Impossible! He had last seen young Podson, a bank clerk, on the seat of a pub verandah in an inland town ninety miles away, Bradly's last painting town. A noosance, young Podson, only to be palliated on a pub verandah after dinner.
    • 2007 January 25, David Walker, “Looking towards a Brown future”, in The Guardian‎[2]:
      [Gordon] Brown's options for the machinery of Whitehall are constrained, as for all prime ministers, by the need to palliate allies and hug enemies close (John Reid, say).
  6. (obsolete) past participle of palliate (all senses)
    • 1661, John Fell, The life of the most learned, reverend, and pious Dr. H. Hammond:
      [the] most helpful method of its Cure, which yet if palliate and imperfect would onely make way to more fatal Sickness

Derived terms

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Translations

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Adjective

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palliate (comparative more palliate, superlative most palliate) (obsolete)

  1. Hidden, concealed. [15th–17th c.]
  2. (medicine, rare) (of a cure) superficial or temporary. [17th c.]
    • (Can we date this quote?), (Please provide the book title or journal name):
      All his industry and sales, did in your estate make but a palliate cure.

References

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  • Paternoster, Lewis M. and Frager-Stone, Ruth. Three Dimensions of Vocabulary Growth. Second Edition. Amsco School Publications: USA. 1998.

Italian

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /palˈlja.te/
  • Rhymes: -ate
  • Hyphenation: pal‧lià‧te

Participle

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palliate

  1. feminine plural of palliato

Adjective

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palliate

  1. feminine plural of palliato

Noun

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palliate f

  1. plural of palliata

Latin

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Adjective

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palliāte

  1. vocative masculine singular of palliātus

References

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