New Word for the Day: Anodyne

Someone at work casually sniffed and described something as “anodyne" and of course I got all excited, because I have never used this word. Another new word? Hit me up.

Anodyne is strange in that there are two definitions, and they seem to have very little in common.

an·o·dyne  /ˈanəˌdīn/  

 

adjective

not likely to provoke dissent or offense; inoffensive, often deliberately so.

"anodyne New Age music"

 

noun

a painkilling drug or medicine.

"she had even refused anodynes"

(Yes, that reference to New Age music is a bit snippy.)

Really going to try to work anodyne into conversation this week. Salience and sinecure are my two most recent new words and they haven't come up at all. Anodyne seems more useful.

Comments

[Lisa]

This is interesting because there’s a British mystery series and one of the books is called Rhe Anodyne Necklace. I was disappointed to find it wasn’t a lovely piece of jewelry, lol.

[theQueen]

Lisa - a sighting of anodyne in the wild! I wouldn’t ever have guessed anodyne was unremarkable.