Word of the Day for Saturday November 19, 2005 anodyne \AN-uh-dyn\, adjective: 1. Serving to relieve pain; soothing. 2. Not likely to offend; bland; innocuous. noun: 1. A medicine that relieves pain. 2. Anything that calms, comforts, or soothes disturbed feelings. But for the most part the British charts were clogged with anodyne ballads. --Nigel Williamson, "Here's a little story, to tell it is a must," [1]Times (London), January 11, 2000 He is alternately accused of being too much the warrior and too anodyne. --Hanna Rosin, "The Madness of Speaker Newt," [2]New Republic, March 17, 1997 Numbness . .. may have replaced pain as the complaint of our century now that aspirin analgesia, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents (NSAIDS), and other anodynes can take away the pains of the civilized world. --Howard M. Spiro, [3]Facing Death An avid fisherman himself, McGarr shares Nellie's philosophy: "I do not merely fish for fish," she would say, "I fish for doubt's anodyne and care's [4]surcease." --Marilyn Stasio, "Crime," [5]New York Times, September 19, 1993 This third novel by a reporter for The New York Times shrewdly examines love as an anodyne for rural isolation. --"Notable Books of the Year 1997," [6]New York Times, December 7, 1997 _________________________________________________________ Anodyne comes, via Latin, from Greek anodunos, "free from pain," from a-, an-, "without" + odune, "pain." References 1. http://www.the-times.co.uk/ 2. http://www.tnr.com/ 3. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0300076673/ref=nosim/lexico 4. http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2000/03/21.html 5. http://www.nytimes.com/ 6. http://www.nytimes.com/ Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=9&q=anodyne