Phlegmatizing

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. Rendering a person calm, composed and free from emotional excitement ; making a substance or situation less reactive or prone to sudden change
2. Causing someone to become stolid and unexcitable ; reducing the volatility or chemical reactivity of a material
3. Inducing a state of stoic calmness in a person ; treating something so that it becomes sluggish and less prone to sudden reaction

Etymology: "Phlegmatizing" is the present participle of "phlegmatize," so its history belongs to that verb. The verb was formed in English from "phlegmatic," which came into the language earlier, and that adjective traces back through Latin to Greek "phlegma," meaning "flame" or "inflammation." The sense of the word that readers might expect, a slow and calm temperament, came from an old medical theory in which the body held four fluids, or humours, and an excess of phlegm was thought to make a person sluggish and unemotional. Forming a verb such as "phlegmatize" from an adjective is a common English pattern, and the "-ize" ending carries the meaning "to make or render something of a particular kind." To phlegmatize, then, is to make someone or something phlegmatic: to dull feeling, or to calm an excitable person or situation. The participle "phlegmatizing" therefore describes the act of making someone or something more composed, or it can be used as a plain adjective for that effect.

Synonyms: dull, numb

Antonyms: excite, stimulate