Placator

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who seeks to appease or calm others, typically during a conflict or disagreement
2. Someone who tries to soothe or pacify individuals in tense situations
3. An individual who takes actions aimed at reducing anger or hostility among groups or persons

Etymology: A placator is simply a placate with the agent suffix "-er" tacked on, so its history is really the history of the verb it comes from. "Placate" was borrowed from Latin "placare", meaning to calm, appease or soothe, a verb built from "placere", "to please". The sense of soothing someone's anger is the heart of the Latin verb, and English has kept it, so a placator is literally one who pleases a person into calm. The "-er" ending has a long pedigree of its own. It descends from a Latin suffix "-arius", which passed into Old French as "-ier" and entered English through Middle English "-er", so the same ending that marks a baker or a teacher also marks a person who does the calming. Because the suffix is so productive, the noun was formed as a natural companion to the verb rather than being borrowed as a unit.

Synonyms: appeaser, pacifier, soother

Antonyms: aggressor, instigator