Ameliorate

Ameliorate (pronounced uh-meel-yuh-reyt or uh-mee-lee-uh-reyt)

(1) To make or become better; to improve something perceived to be in a negative condition.

(2) To make more bearable or less unsatisfactory (a contested meaning).

1728: A variant of the Middle English meliorate (to make better; to improve; to solve a problem), from the Medieval Latin amelioratus, past participle of meliorāre (I make better; improve), a verb from the Classical Latin melior (better), from the Proto-Italic meljōs, from the primitive Indo-European mélyōs, from mel- (strong, big) and cognate with multus, the Ancient Greek μάλα (mála) and the Latvian milns (very much, a lot of).  The adoption in English of ameliorate as an alternative to meliorate reflected the influence of the French améliorer (to improve), from the Old French ameillorer (to make better), from meillor (better), again from the Classical Latin melior.  The intransitive sense of the verb to mean "grow better" dates from 1789, the adjective ameliorative (tending to make better) emerging by 1796.  The synonyms include (most obviously) meliorate and also improve & amend.  Ameliorate is a verb, amelioration, ameliorant & ameliorableness are nouns and ameliorable, amelioratory & ameliorative are adjectives; the noun plural is ameliorations.

Purists insist ameliorate is often wrongly used where what is meant is “alleviate”, a habit which seems prevalent among journalists and politicians, two professions noted in recent decades for their marked decline in quality.  Properly used, ameliorate means to improve something thought not satisfactory; it should not be used to mean “make more tolerable or bearable”.  Thus, the frequent appearance of phrases like “ameliorating the pain” should instead be rendered as “alleviating the pain”.  Alleviate was from the Late Latin alleviatus (to lighten) and in this context means to ease the suffering in a specific situation; to make something easier to bear (and it can mean “to decrease”).  Ameliorate refers to changing a circumstance or situation for the better whereas alleviate describes only easing the suffering attached to a bad circumstance or situation.  In use, ameliorate appears most often as the simple present ameliorates, the present participle ameliorating or the past participle ameliorated.

In October 2016, during an Aegean cruise, Lindsay Lohan suffered a finger injury, the tip of one digit severed by the boat's anchor chain.  The detached flesh was salvaged from the deck, permitting micro-surgery to be performed ashore, ameliorating the damage suffered.  Unfortunately, being an extremity, it wasn’t possible immediately wholly to alleviate the pain but despite the gruesome injury. Lindsay Lohan later managed to find husband so all’s well that ends well.