anodyne

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 19, 2021 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>anodyne</strong> &#149; \AN-uh-dyne\&nbsp; &#149; <em>adjective</em><br /> <p><strong>1 :</strong> serving to alleviate pain</p> <p><strong>2 :</strong> not likely to offend or arouse tensions <strong>:</strong> <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/innocuous">innocuous</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"Since much of TikTok is wordless and <em>anodyne</em>, Tik-Tok seems the perfect corporate antidote to more pointed and politicized commentary on Twitter or Facebook." — <a href="https://www.govtech.com/social/How-TikTok-Is-Upending-Workplace-Social-Media-Policies-and-Giving-Us-Rebel-Nurses-and-Dancing-Cops.html">Elizabeth C. Tippett, <em>Government Technology</em>, 3 Dec. 2020</a></p> <p>"He also voiced the donkey in the <em>Shrek</em> movies, talked to animals in the <em>Dr. Dolittle</em> movies, and goofed his way through an <em>anodyne</em> kiddie picture called <em>Daddy Day Care</em>. But this comeback, however well it served [Eddie] Murphy financially and spoke to his home life as a contented dad (of 10 children, as of now), was not the comic revival that his fans were rooting for." — <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/12/the-return-of-eddie-murphy/616937/">David Kamp, <em>The Atlantic</em>, December 2020</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p><em>Anodyne</em> came to English via Latin from Greek <em>anṓdynos</em> (meaning "free from pain, causing no pain, harmless, allaying pain"), and it has been used as both an adjective and a noun ("something that soothes, calms, or comforts") since the 16th century. It has sometimes been used of things that dull or lull the senses and render painful experiences less so. British statesman Edmund Burke used it this way, for example, in 1790 when he referred to flatter