Other forms: comforts
Comfort is ease of body or mind, or something that gives it. Sit in comfort, a comfort to her, cold comfort.
Cold comfort is consolation that does not console, and comfort food is what people eat when they want to be looked after. The word came from a Latin verb meaning to strengthen, which is a good deal more bracing than the modern sense.
1nouncomfortEase of body or mind, or something that gives it.
“After the funeral, her friends' kind words were a great comfort to her.”
comfort is an ease.
Latin confortare means to strengthen greatly — con plus fortis, strong. Fort and force are relatives.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰerǵʰ-
Latin
confortō
Old French
cunfort
Middle English
comfort
English, today
comfort
From Middle English comfort, from Old French cunfort, confort, from the stem of Latin confortō. It replaced Old English frofor, Middle English frovre.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA