Ease on Down the Road

I was composing an email and thought about using the word attenuate, but wanted to make sure it was the appropriate word to use. It turned out it wasn’t, and I learned another good word.

Attenuate means to weaken or reduce in force, intensity, effect, quantity, or value. It comes from the Latin word attenuatus, that means enfeebled or weak. Attenuatus is past participle of attenuare (a combination of att- and tenuare, meaning make thin”) that means to lessen or diminish. The word came to English in the 1520s.

In my email I used the more accurate word alleviate, that means to make easier to endure, or to lessen or mitigate. Alleviate came to English a little before attenuate, from Latin through Middle French. The Latin word was alleviare, meaning to lighten (in Latin levis does not mean jeans, it means “light in weight.” Levis is the word from which we get lever, something that makes a heavy load easier to lift.) So alleviate has a sense of easing or taking pressure off, while attenuate is has a sense of weakening. Attenuating is often negative, while alleviating is always positive.

Of course, now that we have the definition of alleviate we have to look at mitigate. The difference between mitigate and alleviate is that mitigate has a connection to pain. It means to lessen pain or grief or wrath, or make a punishment less severe. That is because it comes from the Latin word mitigatus, which is the past participle of mitigare, that means to soften or make tender. Mitis means gentle or soft. A gentle touch is wonderful when you’re in pain or facing severe punishment.

As I was capturing this line of words, I wondered if attenuate and extenuate are related. They are, though the meaning is somewhat connected more closely to mitigate. Extenuate, like attenuate, came to English in the 1520s, and also is originally from the word tenuare, this time with the prefix ex- that indicates “out”. It means to represent something as less serious. It is most often used in the phrase “extenuating circumstances,” which indicates there is a reason why the offense should be considered less serious that it would appear to be.  So it is different from the other words in that it is an explanation as to why an offense or fault that has already taken place should have lesser impact.

Attenuate is weakening (and not necessarily good), alleviate is easing (and good), mitigate is lessening pain (and very good), and extenuate is lessening punishment (and neither good nor bad).

May your week be filled by one or more of these. Mine will, as I am now officially on vacation for the week.