soothe
Meanings
- To restore to ease, comfort, or tranquility; relieve; calm; quiet; refresh.
- To allay; assuage; mitigate; soften.
- To smooth over; render less obnoxious.
- To calm or placate someone or some situation.
- To ease or relieve pain or suffering.
- To temporise by assent, concession, flattery, or cajolery.
- To bring comfort or relief.
- To keep in good humour; wheedle; cajole; flatter.
- To prove true; verify; confirm as true.
- To confirm the statements of; maintain the truthfulness of (a person); bear out.
- To assent to; yield to; humour by agreement or concession.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English sothen (“to verify, prove the validity of”), from Old English sōþian (“to verify, prove, confirm, bear witness to”), from Proto-West Germanic *sanþōn, from Proto-Germanic *sanþōną (“to prove, certify, acknowledge, testify”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (“to be”). Cognate with Danish sande (“to verify”), Swedish sanna (“to verify”), Icelandic sanna (“to verify”). See also sooth. Displaced Old English frēfran, ġefrēfran (“to comfort, console, soothe”), and partially displaced Old English stillan, ġestillan (“to calm, become calm, pacify, quieten”) (whence modern still). The semantic evolution of "to verify, prove the validity of" → "to comfort" (first attested in the late 17th century) comes from the notion of assuaging someone by supporting the truth of what they say.