placate

See also: plaćate and plácáte

English

WOTD – 16 January 2007

Etymology

First attested in the late 17^th century; borrowed from Latin plācātus, perfect passive participle of plācō (“appease, placate”, literally “smooth, smoothen”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix) 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.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pləˈkeɪt/, /pleɪˈkeɪt/
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈpleɪkeɪt/, /pleɪˈkeɪt/

  • Audio (California):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /pləˈkeɪt/

  • Audio (General Australian):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪt

Verb

placate (third-person singular simple present placates, present participle placating, simple past and past participle placated)

1. (transitive) To calm; to bring peace to; to influence someone who was furious to the point that they become content or at least no longer irate.

   Synonyms: appease, soothe, conciliate, mollify, propitiate, satisfy

   Antonym: enrage

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Derived terms

• placater
• placating
• placatingly
• placation
• placative
• placatory

Related terms

• implacable
• placable
• placid

Translations

to calm

Arabic: هَدَّأَ (haddaʔa), اِسْتَرْضَى (istarḍā) Armenian: հանգստացնել (hy) (hangstacʻnel) Bulgarian: успокоявам (bg) (uspokojavam), омиротворявам (bg) (omirotvorjavam) Chinese: Mandarin: 安撫 / 安抚 (zh) (ānfǔ), 平息 (zh) (píngxí) Czech: uklidnit (cs) pf, zklidnit pf, utišit (cs) pf Dutch: kalmeren (nl), bedaren (nl), sussen (nl), paaien (nl) Esperanto: please add this translation if you can Finnish: lepyttää (fi), rauhoittaa (fi) French: apaiser (fr), calmer (fr) Georgian: please add this translation if you can German: beschwichtigen (de), besänftigen (de), begütigen (de), beruhigen (de) Gothic: 𐍆𐌿𐌻𐌻𐌰𐍆𐌰𐌷𐌾𐌰𐌽 (fullafahjan) Greek: κατευνάζω (el) (katevnázo) Hebrew: הרגיע (hirgía) Hungarian: kiengesztel (hu) Icelandic: róa, sefa, fróa Italian: placare (it) Japanese: なだめる (ja) (nadameru) Khmer: កំសាន្ត (kɑmsaan) Latin: pācificō Maori: whakamārie, whakamauru Mongolian: please add this translation if you can Portuguese: aplacar (pt) Russian: умиротворя́ть (ru) (umirotvorjátʹ), успока́ивать (ru) (uspokáivatʹ), унимать (ru) (unimatʹ), утихомиривать (ru) (utixomirivatʹ) Serbo-Croatian: umiriti (sh), умирити, smiriti (sh), смирити Spanish: aplacar (es) Swedish: blidka (sv) Thai: ปลอบโยน (bplòp yohn), ปลอบใจ (bplòp jai) Vietnamese: xoa dịu

Adjective

placate (comparative more placate, superlative most placate)

1. (rare, obsolete) Placid, peaceful.
   • 1662, William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armour:

     When are you more placate and serene?

Anagrams

• epactal

Italian

Verb

placate

1. inflection of placare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative
   3. feminine plural past participle

Anagrams

• catalpe

Latin

Verb

plācāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of plācō

References

• “placate”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “placate”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “placate”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Spanish

Verb

placate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of placar combined with te