Anodyne Anodynos An Uh Dyn Adjective Relieving Pain Soothing Bland

anodyne /AN-uh-dyn/

adjective

1. Relieving pain; soothing.

2. Bland or insipid: not likely to provoke or offend.

noun

1. Something that soothes or comforts.

2. A medicine that relieves pain.

[From Latin anodynos, from Greek anodynos, from a- (not) + odyne (pain). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ed- (to eat, to bite), which also gave us edible, comestible, obese, etch, fret, postprandial, esurient, and edacity. Earliest documented use: 1543.]

“The interview, while engaging, was anodyne and strangely emollient, entirely without any edge.” - TV: Shelving the Misery Memoirs; Sunday Business Post (Cork, Ireland); May 18, 2014.