Wiktionary

anodyne

English

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WOTD – 8 May 2011

Etymology

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From Middle English anodine, from Medieval Latin anōdynos (“stilling or relieving pain”), from Ancient Greek ἀνώδυνος (anṓdunos, “free from pain”), from ἀν- (an-, “without”) + ὀδύνη (odúnē, “pain”).

Adjective sense “noncontentious” probably through French anodin (“harmless, trivial”), of same origin.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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anodyne (comparative more anodyne, superlative most anodyne)

  1. (pharmacology) Capable of soothing or eliminating pain. [from 16th c.]
    • 1847 June 12, Littell's Living Age, volume 13, number 161, page 483:
      Many a time has the vapor of ether been inhaled for the relief of oppressed lungs; many a time has the sought relief been thus obtained; and just so many times has the discovery of the wonderful anodyne properties of this gas, as affecting all bodily suffering, been brushed past and overlooked.
    • 1910, Edward L. Keyes, Diseases of the Genito-Urinary Organs, page 211:
      The citrate is the most efficient as an alkali, but irritates some stomachs, the liquor the most anodyne, the acetate the most diuretic.
  2. (figuratively) Soothing or relaxing. [from 18th c.]
    Classical music is rather anodyne.
  3. (by extension) Noncontentious, blandly agreeable, unlikely to cause offence or debate. [from 20th c.]
    Synonyms: bland, inoffensive, noncontentious
    • 20 May 2003, The Guardian:
      It all became so routine, so anodyne, so dull.
    • 2004, John Dickie, Cosa Nostra: A History Of The Sicilian Mafia, Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN:
      What is less known about Cavalleria is that its story is the purest, most anodyne form of a myth about Sicily and the mafia, a myth that was something akin to the official ideology of the Sicilian mafia for nearly a century and a half.
    • 2010 December 9, “Rattled”, in The Economist:
      States typically like to stick to anodyne messages, like saving wildflowers or animals. But every so often a controversy crops up.
    • September 8 2022, Stephen Bates, “Queen Elizabeth II obituary”, in The Guardian‎[1]:
      when the princess’s former nanny Marion Crawford, “Crawfie”, published an entirely anodyne and sycophantic memoir in 1950, she was cast into outer darkness by the family.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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anodyne (plural anodynes)

  1. (pharmacology) Any medicine or other agent that relieves pain.
  2. (figuratively) A source of relaxation or comfort.
    • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 16, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
      Nor do I mean to say that Virtue is not Virtue because it is never tempted to go astray; only that dulness is a much finer gift than we give it credit for being; and that some people are very lucky whom Nature has endowed with a good store of that great anodyne.
    • 1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter VII, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London, New York, N.Y., Melbourne, Vic.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC:
      The air was heavy with the perfume of the flowers, and their beauty seemed to bring him an anodyne for his pain.
    • 1929, Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own, page 79:
      So, with a sigh, because novels so often provide an anodyne and not an antidote, glide one into torpid slumbers instead of rousing one with a burning brand.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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Anagrams

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French

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Pronunciation

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Adjective

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anodyne

  1. feminine singular of anodyn

Latin

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Pronunciation

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Adjective

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anōdyne

  1. vocative masculine singular of anōdynos or anōdynus
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