palliate

English

Etymology

From Latin palliatus (“cloaked”) (in Late Latin the past participle of palliare (“to cover with a cloak”)), from pallium (“cloak”).

Pronunciation

• (verb) IPA^(key): /ˈpælieɪt/

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  • Rhymes: -ælieɪt
• (adjective) IPA^(key): /ˈpæliət/

Verb

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

1. To relieve the symptoms of; to ameliorate.
   • 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.
3. To cover or disguise the seriousness of (a mistake, offence etc.) by excuses and apologies.
   • 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

4. (obsolete) To lessen the severity of; to extenuate, moderate, qualify.
   • 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, 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.
   • 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, “Looking towards a Brown future”, in The Guardian:

     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).

Related terms

• palliation
• palliative
• pallium

Translations

Adjective

palliate (comparative more palliate, superlative most palliate)

1. (obsolete) Cloaked; hidden, concealed.
2. (obsolete) Eased; mitigated; alleviated.
   • 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

References

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

Italian

Pronunciation

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

Participle

palliate

1. feminine plural of palliato

Adjective

palliate

1. feminine plural of palliato

Noun

palliate f

1. plural of palliata

Latin

Adjective

palliāte

1. vocative masculine singular of palliātus

References

• palliate in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)