Word of the Day: ANODYNE

Totally inoffensive

anodyne (noun) - a medicine, treatment, or anything else that relieves distress or pain [an-uh-dahyn]

• anodyne also means inoffensive or harmless; unlikely to cause offense or upset

BREAKDOWN: While the word anodyne derives from basic roots, their spelling and implications deserve explication: 

AN- (not) + ED- (eat) + -INE (quality)

• The root ED-, which appears as OD- in anodyne, means to eat in words like edible and obesity.

• The suffix -INE appears often in English words, though rarely as -YNE.

The variant spelling of this word’s constituent roots is not as interesting as their literal interpretation as something that will not eat at you. The slang phrase, “What’s eating you?” means “What’s bothering you?” which explains why anodyne refers to something unlikely to bother anyone.

“Novels so often provide an anodyne and not an antidote, glide one into torpid slumbers instead of rousing one with a burning brand.” —Virginia Woolf

[Our Wednesday Wildcards are fascinating and important words that are not necessarily derived from classical roots.]