different between assuage vs indemnify

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

• IPA^(key): /?n?d?m.n?.fa?/

Etymology 1

From indemn (“unhurt”) + -ify (forming verbs)

Verb

indemnify (third-person singular simple present indemnifies, present participle indemnifying, simple past and past participle indemnified)

1. To secure against loss or damage; to insure.
   • 1670, Sir William Temple, letter to Lord Arlington, in The Works of Sir William Temple, page 101:

     The states must at last engage to the merchants here that they will indemnify them from all that shall fall out.

3. (chiefly law) To compensate or reimburse someone for some expense or injury.
   • 1906, Civil Code of the State of California^[1], page 405:

     The lender of a thing for use must indemnify the borrower for damage caused by defects or vices in it, which he knew at the time of lending, and concealed from the borrower.

Derived terms

• indemnifiable
• indemnification
• indemnifier

Related terms

• indemnity

Translations

Etymology 2

From in- (“into”) + damnify (“to injure; to wrong”), assimilated to indemn and indemnify (“secure against loss; compensate, reimburse”).

Verb

indemnify (third-person singular simple present indemnifies, present participle indemnifying, simple past and past participle indemnified)

1. (obsolete, rare) to hurt, to harm
   • 1583, Thomas Stocker's translation of A tragicall historie of the troubles and ciuile warres of the lowe Countries, i. 63a

     He... did not belieue that his Maiestie by this occasion coulde any way be endemnified.

   • 1593, Thomas Lodge, Life & Death of William Long Beard, E ij

     What harme the Rhodians haue doone thee, that thou so much indemnifiest them?

References