Allayed

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To have reduced fears or concerns
2. to have calmed emotions or anxiety
3. to have alleviated discomfort or pain from a situation

Etymology: The surprising thing about "allay" is how close it came to merging with two other words. In Middle English, its forms were identical to those of "allege" and "alloy", so the senses bled into one another, and a verb that now means only "to calm" once also carried ideas of accusing and mixing metal. The root is an Old English verb, "āleċġan", built from the prefix "a-" and "lay". Its core sense was physical: to put down, lay aside, or lay down. From there it spread to a range of meanings, including to suppress, abolish, overcome, or diminish, so that "laying something down" came to mean bringing it to rest. Calming a fear is that same act applied to a feeling. The word's German relative, "erlegen", shows the older force of the idea. It meant to impose or to cause someone to succumb, and in hunting it came to mean to kill game. The English verb kept the gentler half of that range, and "allayed" is simply its past form, used for fears that have been put down.

Synonyms: alleviated, calmed, reduced, diminished, pacified

Antonyms: aggravated, intensified, exacerbated, heightened, increased