propitiate
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Latin propitiāre (“make favourable”), from propitius (“favourable, gracious”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Verb[edit]
propitiate (third-person singular simple present propitiates, present participle propitiating, simple past and past participle propitiated)
- (transitive) To conciliate, appease, or make peace with someone, particularly a god or spirit.
- Synonym: appease
- 1720, Alexander Pope, The Iliad of Homer, Book 1, lines 191-192:
- Let fierce Achilles, dreadful in his rage,
- The god propitiate, and the pest assuage.
- 1849, Herman Melville, Mardi, Vol. 2, ch. 25:
- But polite and politic it is, to propitiate your hostess.
- 1910, Henry De Vere Stacpoole, The Pools of Silence, ch. 30:
- [H]e heard . . . one of the soldiers singing as he cleaned his rifle—the men always sang over this business, as if to propitiate the gun god.
- 2001 Sept. 30, Thom Shanker, "Who Will Fight This War?," New York Times (retrieved 21 April 2015):
- By saying unequivocally that conscription is not an option, the Bush administration and the Rumsfeld Pentagon, while propitiating the ghost of Vietnam, are also profiting from the success of the all-volunteer military.
- (transitive) To make propitious or favourable.
- (intransitive) To make propitiation.
- Synonym: atone
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
To conciliate, appease or make peace with someone
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Latin[edit]
Verb[edit]
propitiāte
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *peth₂-
- English terms borrowed from Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 4-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- Latin non-lemma forms
- Latin verb forms