Etymology

assuage

as·suage
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Today it means: To lessen the intensity of, to mitigate or relieve (hunger, emotion, pain, etc.). Full definition →

Middle English aswagen ← Old French asuagier ← Vulgar Latin *assuāviō
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromad-
  2. Vulgar Latin · derived from*assuāviō“to sweeten, to butter up, to calm”
  3. Old French · derived fromasuagier“to appease, to calm”
  4. Middle English · inherited fromaswagen
  5. English todayassuage

From Middle English aswagen, from Old French asuagier (“to appease, to calm”), from Vulgar Latin *assuāviō (“to sweeten, to butter up, to calm”), derived from Latin ad- + suāvis (“sweet”) + -iō.

Words from the same roots

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.