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anodyne

UK/ˈæn.ə.daɪn/US/ˈæn.ə.daɪn/
adjectiveC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechneutralformal · an editor’s judgement

Anodyne means so mild and inoffensive that it could upset nobody. Carefully saying nothing at all.

It is a criticism in every modern use, since an anodyne statement or an anodyne response is one designed to avoid saying anything worth objecting to, and press offices produce them by the yard. The original medical sense is quite different and quite literal, since an anodyne was a painkiller. The shift from soothing to bland is one of the neater journeys in English.

Definitions of anodyne

  1. 1adjectiveanodyneDeliberately inoffensive and lacking any substance.C2

    “The reply was so anodyne it might have been written by a machine.”

Also accepted in games: bland

Where it comes from

Anodyne means painless. Greek an, without, joins odynē, pain, so an anodyne was a painkiller, and the sense of bland and inoffensive came later through French.

  1. French

    anodin — harmless, trivial

  2. Ancient Greek

    ἀνώδυνος — free from pain

  3. Middle English

    anodine

  4. English, today

    anodyne

Built from

  • ἀν- · Ancient Greek — without
  • ὀδύνη · Ancient Greek — pain

From Middle English anodine, from Medieval Latin anōdynos (“stilling or relieving pain”), from Ancient Greek ἀνώδυνος (“free from pain”), from ἀν- (“without”) + ὀδύνη (“pain”). Adjective sense “noncontentious” probably through French anodin (“harmless, trivial”), of same origin.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 39 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

anodyne in the wild

  • An anodyne is medication used to lessen pain through reducing the sensitivity of the brain or nervous system.

    Anodyne

  • In the 19th century, the primary anodynes were opium, henbane, hemlock, tobacco, nightshade (stramonium), and chloroform.

    Anodyne

  • Compound spirit of ether, also called Hoffmann's anodyne, Hoffmann's drops, or aetheris spiritus compositus, is a solution of one part diethyl ether in three parts alcohol.

    Compound spirit of ether

  • An anodyne is an archaic term for a painkiller drug.

    Anodyne (disambiguation)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.