different between assuage vs blunt

English

Alternative forms

• asswage (obsolete)
• tasswage (obsolete, poetic)

Etymology

From Middle English aswagen, from Old French asuagier (“to appease, to calm”), from Vulgar Latin *assuavi? (“I sweeten, I 'butter up', I calm”), derived from Latin ad- + suavis (“sweet”) + -?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??swe?d?/
• Hyphenation: as?suage
• Rhymes: -e?d?

Verb

assuage (third-person singular simple present assuages, present participle assuaging, simple past and past participle assuaged)

1. (transitive) To lessen the intensity of, to mitigate or relieve (hunger, emotion, pain etc.).

   • Refreshing winds the summer's heat assuage.

   • 1796, Edmund Burke, a letter to a noble lord

     to assuage the sorrows of a desolate old man

   • 1864 November 21, Abraham Lincoln (signed) or John Hay, letter to Mrs. Bixby in Boston

     I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost.

2. (transitive) To pacify or soothe (someone).
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To calm down, become less violent (of passion, hunger etc.); to subside, to abate.

Derived terms

• assuagement
• assuager
• unassuaged

Translations

References

• assuage in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• assuage in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “assuage”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• sausage

Middle English

Verb

assuage

1. Alternative form of aswagen

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /bl?nt/
• Rhymes: -?nt

Etymology 1

From Middle English blunt, blont, from Old English *blunt (attested in the derivative Blunta (male personal name) (> English surnames Blunt, Blount)), probably of North Germanic origin, possibly related to Old Norse blunda (“to doze”) (> Icelandic blunda, Swedish blunda, Danish blunde).

Adjective

blunt (comparative blunter, superlative bluntest)

1. Having a thick edge or point; not sharp.
2. Dull in understanding; slow of discernment; opposed to acute.
3. Abrupt in address; plain; unceremonious; wanting the forms of civility; rough in manners or speech.

   the blunt admission that he had never liked my company
4. Hard to impress or penetrate.
   • December 30, 1736, Alexander Pope, letter to Jonathan Swift

     I find my heart hardened and blunt to new impressions.

5. Slow or deficient in feeling: insensitive.

Synonyms

• (having a thick edge or point): dull, pointless, coarse
• (dull in understanding): stupid, obtuse
• (abrupt in address): curt, short, rude, brusque, impolite, uncivil, harsh

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

blunt (plural blunts)

1. A fencer's practice foil with a soft tip.
2. A short needle with a strong point.
3. (smoking) A marijuana cigar.
   • 2005: to make his point, lead rapper B-Real fired up a blunt in front of the cameras and several hundred thousand people and announced, “I'm taking a hit for every one of y'all!” — Martin Torgoff, Can't Find My Way Home (Simon & Schuster 2005, p. 461)
4. (Britain, slang, archaic, uncountable) money

   • Down he goes to the Commons, to see the lawyer and draw the blunt […]

5. A playboating move resembling a cartwheel performed on a wave.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English blunten, blonten, from the adjective (see above).

Verb

blunt (third-person singular simple present blunts, present participle blunting, simple past and past participle blunted)

1. To dull the edge or point of, by making it thicker; to make blunt.
2. (figuratively) To repress or weaken; to impair the force, keenness, or susceptibility, of

   It blunted my appetite.

   My feeling towards her have been blunted.

Synonyms

• blunten

Translations

See also

• bluntly
• dull

Old French

Etymology

From Frankish *blund, from Proto-Germanic *blundaz, from Proto-Indo-European *b?lend?-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blont/, [bl?nt]

Adjective

blunt m (oblique and nominative feminine singular blunde)

1. Alternative form of blont