anodyne

English

Etymology

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

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈæn.ə.daɪn/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪn

Adjective

anodyne (comparative more anodyne, superlative most anodyne)

1. (pharmacology) Capable of soothing or eliminating pain.
   • 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.

   Classical music is rather anodyne.

3. (by extension) Noncontentious, blandly agreeable, unlikely to cause offence or debate.

   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:

     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

• (pharmacology): See Thesaurus:analgesic

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

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. , volumes (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

Translations

References

• “anodyne”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “anodyne”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “anodyne”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• annoyed

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.nɔ.din/
• Homophone: anodynes

Adjective

anodyne

1. feminine singular of anodyn

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /aˈnoː.dy.ne/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /aˈno.di.ne/,

Adjective

anōdyne

1. vocative masculine singular of anōdynos or anōdynus