different between assuage vs lighten

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): /?la?.t?n/
• Rhymes: -a?t?n

Etymology 1

From Middle English lightnen, equivalent to light +? -en.

Verb

lighten (third-person singular simple present lightens, present participle lightening, simple past and past participle lightened)

1. (transitive) To make brighter or clearer; to illuminate.
   • 1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis, London: Henry Herringman, stanza 231, p. 59,^[1]

     A Key of fire ran all along the shore,

     And lighten’d all the river with the blaze:

2. (intransitive) To become brighter or clearer; to brighten.
3. (intransitive, archaic) To burst forth or dart, as lightning; to shine with, or like, lightning; to flash.
   • 1595, George Peele, The Old Wives’ Tale, The Malone Society Reprints, 1908, line 500,^[2]

     Enter the Conjurer; it lightens and thunders […]

   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 3,^[3]

     […] this dreadful night,

     That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars

     As doth the lion.

4. (transitive) To emit or disclose in, or as if in, lightning; to flash out, like lightning.
   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, Richard II, Act III, Scene 3,^[4]

     […] behold his eye,

     As bright as is the eagle’s, lightens forth

     Controlling majesty:

5. To illuminate with knowledge; to enlighten.
   • 1599, John Davies, “Of the Soule of man, and the immortalitie thereof” in Nosce Teipsum. This Oracle Expounded in Two Elegies, London: John Standish, p. 10,^[5]

     O Light which mak’st the Light, which makes the Day,

     Which setst the Eye without and Mind within,

     Lighten my spirit with one cleare heavenly ray,

     Which now to view it selfe doth first begin.

Conjugation

Derived terms

• lighten up

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English lightnen, equivalent to light +? -en.

Verb

lighten (third-person singular simple present lightens, present participle lightening, simple past and past participle lightened)

1. (transitive) To alleviate; to reduce the burden of.

2. (transitive) To make light or lighter in weight.
3. (transitive) To make less serious or more cheerful.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Psalms 34:5,^[6]

     They looked unto him, were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.

4. (intransitive) To become light or lighter in weight.
5. (intransitive) To become less serious or more cheerful.

Conjugation

Derived terms

• lighten up

Translations

Etymology 3

From light +? -en.

Verb

lighten (third-person singular simple present lightens, present participle lightening, simple past and past participle lightened)

1. To descend; to light.
   • Book of Common Prayer

     O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us.

Related terms

• alight

Anagrams

• enlight, lething