We're busting out the dictionary after seeing the word "assuaged" in a headline on the front page today. The headline is about elections in Yemen; it reads "Hadi replacing Saleh as leader, but activists aren't assuaged."
It's not a rare word, but we don't use it often. A search of the Post-Dispatch archives shows we used it 18 times in 2011. That's not kerfuffle-type rareness, but it's still unusual.
In Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition, "assuage" is defined as:
1 to lessen (pain, distress, etc.); allay 2 to calm (passion, anger, etc.); pacify 3 to satisfy or slake (thirst, appetite, etc.)
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, "assuage" goes all the way back to Latin, with stops in Old French and Anglo-French. The Latin is "ad" plus "suavis," which means "sweet, agreeable."
You can also sound very high-minded by pronouncing the word "assuage" like this.
Facebook commenters, your duty is to use "assuage" in a coherent sentence.
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