Other forms: placated, placating, placates
To placate is to make an angry person calm again. Placate the crowd, hard to placate, placated with an apology.
It works by giving something rather than by explaining, which is what separates placating from persuading, and it usually carries a hint that the anger was not fully deserved or not fully addressed. It is close to appease and slightly less loaded. Note that the Latin means to smooth.
1verbplacateTo make an angry person calm again.
“The manager offered them free drinks to placate the angry customers.”
placate is a calming.
Latin placare means to soothe or smooth, related to placere, to please. Please, placid and complacent come from the same family.
Proto-Indo-European
*plāk- — smooth, flat
Latin
plācātus
English, today
placate
Built from
First attested in the late 17th century; Latin plācātus, perfect passive participle of plācō (“appease, placate”) literally “smooth, smoothen” (see -ate and -ate for more), ultimately thought to be from Proto-Indo-European plāk- (“smooth, flat”), from pele- (“broad, flat, plain”). Related to Latin placeō (“appease”), Old English flōh (“flat stone, chip”). More at please.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA