Leniting

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Making something softer, milder or less harsh, especially by weakening a consonant sound in speech or grammar
2. Easing the severity of something so that it becomes gentler, often by weakening a harsh sound or pronunciation
3. Softening a harsh element so it becomes less severe, as when a consonant is weakened in certain languages

Etymology: "Leniting" is the present participle of "lenite", a verb meaning to make something milder, and that verb is itself a back-formation from "lenition". The noun came first: in the study of language, lenition describes a consonant that softens, as when a hard sound weakens into a softer one. English speakers then worked backwards from that noun, trimming off its ending to create a verb that could describe the same softening process as an action. The word thus runs in the opposite direction to most verbs, which usually give rise to nouns with added endings. Here the noun was the older form, and the verb was carved out of it. The participle "leniting" simply takes the verb's -ing ending to describe something in the middle of being softened or moderated.