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Word of the Week: Palliate

03.11.2007

pal?li?ate [pal-ee-eyt]

–verb (used with object), -at?ed, -at?ing.
1. to relieve or lessen without curing; mitigate; alleviate.

2. to try to mitigate or conceal the gravity of (an offense) by excuses, apologies, etc.; extenuate.

–Related forms
pal?li?a?tion, noun
pal?li?a?tor, noun

[Origin: 1540–50; < LL palli?tus cloaked, covered. See pallium, -ate1 ]

In A Sentence
"Whether it be, or be not, thought satisfactory, that there is such a thing is manifest; and that it is the occasion of great part of the unreasonable [behavior] of men towards each other: that by means of it they palliate their vices and follies to themselves: and that it prevents their applying to themselves those reproofs and instructions, which they meet with either in Scripture or in moral and religious discourses, though exactly suitable to the state of their own mind, and the course of their [behavior]."

- Joseph Butler, "Fifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel", Project Canterbury, originally published by Hilliard and Brown; Boston: Hilliard, Gray, Little, and Wilkins, 1827

 

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, ? Random House, Inc. 2006.

Shawn Denny, Information Services Librarian