Palliate (pronounced pal-ee-yet)
(1) To relieve or lessen (pain, disease etc) without curing or removing; to mitigate; to alleviate.
(2) To attempt to mitigate or conceal the gravity of (conduct
(especially as of offenses)) by excuses, reasons, apologies etc; to extenuate.
(3) To cause an offence to seem less serious; some
act of concealment.
1490s: From the Late Latin palliāre (to cover up), from palliātus (cloaked, covered), (in Late Latin the past participle of palliare (to cover with a cloak)), from palliāre (to
cover up) or pallium (cloak). Palliate is a verb & adjective,
palliation, palliator & pallium are nouns, palliative is a noun &
adjective, unpalliated is an adjective, palliated & palliating are verbs
and palliatively is an adverb; the common noun plural is palliatives.
Palliate
is one of those words in English which has become mostly overwhelmed by the
associative meaning of a derived form. Palliative
medicine (or palliative care) is a branch of medicine which focuses on those
terminally ill (usually with months, at the most, to live) by providing pain
relief and attempting to allowing the dying to enjoy the best possible quality
of life. The alternative industry is
that of voluntary euthanasia (the so-called right-to-die movement) which is now
permitted and regulated by legislation in many jurisdictions. Palliative medicine gained the name from the
idea of the use of “palliatives”, drugs which provide pain relief for those for
whom there is no possibility of a cure.
In that sense, the treatment regime “cloaks rather than cures” and
expectations are limited to concealment of the consequences of the
condition. Although such practices
(along with euthanasia, voluntary and not) had been part of medical practice
for centuries, it was in the 1960s it came to be recognized as a discipline and
a structural part of (or adjunct to depending on the jurisdiction) the hospital
industry, and there are both academic courses in the subject and peer-reviewed
journals such as the European Association for Palliative Care’s (EAPC) Palliative
Medicine, published since 1987. Although
On Death and Dying (1969) by Swiss-American
psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926–2004) is sometimes cited as the
intellectual impetus for emergence, it happened really because of the
mid-century advances in hygiene, nutrition, pharmaceuticals & surgical techniques
and the extension of medical services in the welfare states which extended life-spans
but not necessarily wellness, thus the increasing population of those
terminally ill and in need of care. The
ability to prolong life (sometimes for decades) of someone in a debilitated
condition, combined with the social changes which had seen the decline in
numbers of extended family living arrangements, meant a substantially
public-funded industry needed to evolve.
That has meant the word has faded from some of its historic uses. In law, it used to be part of the language of courtrooms, defense counsel attempting to palliate the conduct of their client in the hop the just or jury would view the alleged act less harshly and deliver a verdict less severe. That sense came into use in seventeenth century England and in courtrooms it described attempts to cover or disguise the seriousness of an offence by reasons (fanciful & not), excuses (plausible & not) or apologies (sincere & not). In legal use, palliate has been replace by mitigation (a plea assembling reasons why conduct should be regarded more favourably than it may appear and be thus awarded with a lesser sentence), from the Middle French mitigation, from the Latin mitigation from mītigātus (softened, pacified). The companion term is exculpation which etymologically and legally is unrelated both to palliate & mitigate. Exculpate was from the Medieval Latin exculpātus, the perfect passive participle of exculpō, from the Latin ex culpa, the construct being ex- (out, from) + culpa (fault; blame (and familiar in Modern English as “culpability”)). Whereas a plea of palliation or in mitigation was entered in the context of asking certain matters be considered so a guilty party may receive a lesser punishment, an successful exculpation exonerates the accused. The lawyers in the 1630s picked-up and adapted palliate’s earlier meaning. In the fifteenth century, true to the Latin origin derived from “a cloak”, it was used to mean “to relieve the symptoms of; to ameliorate” the sense (concealing the symptoms) to which palliative medicine would in the 1960s return. This use was extended by the mid-1500s to become a general way to “conceal, hide or disguise” and was used widely in fields such as tailoring, architecture, landscaping, interior decorating and anywhere else where techniques of illusion were valued.
Many of the artistic depictions of scenes from Antiquity are probably at least misleading (no epoch has ever been so idealized) but one aspect of the fashions seems usually faithfully to have reflected what really was: the garb of the physicians, philosophers and teachers which was a woollen cloak, draped over the left shoulder and wrapped around the body; the Romans called it a pallium and it was the stage garment also of the hetaerae (plural of hetaera (in Ancient Greece, a high-price escort of some beauty & culture who entertained upper-class men with company, conversation and other services; they're sometimes referred to as courtesans but this can be misleading and a more accurate modern comparison is probably with the business model of the “sugar-babe”)).
Appreciative audience: Phryne revealed before the Areopagus (1861), oil on canvas by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904), Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg.
The
painting depicts Phryne (circa 371-320 BC), a legendarily beautiful hetaera of Ancient Greece, on trial
before the Areopagus (from the Ancient Greek Ἄρειος Πάγος (Áreios
Págos (literally “Rock of Ares”)) which during some periods in classical
times functioned as the final appellate court (both civil & criminal
matters) in Athens. As a deliberative
body, the Areopagus (it picked up the name from the location where the sittings
were conducted) may also at times have been a legislative (or at least an
advisory) assembly something like a senate.
The comparison with the UK's House of Lords in its historic role as both
the (upper) house of review is sometimes made because of the dual function as
both a legislative body and a final court of appeal but the history of the role
of the Aeropagus in law-making is sketchy and as a judicial organ it seems also
to have sat as a whole, never restricting (as the Lords eventually did) the
judicial hearings to committees of those with appropriate legal experience.
Defended
(and by dubious legend not very well) by the speech-writer Hypereides (circa 390–322
BC), she was arraigned before the Areopagus on a charge of Asebeia (a criminal indictment alleging impiety, something like
blasphemy towards the divine objects and perhaps an occupation risk in her
profession and the charge appears to have been brought by a jilted and vengeful
ex) and the most told tale of the trial is that acquittal was secured when she bared
her breasts to those assembled to judge.
Depending on which imaginative medieval scribe was writing, either her
counsel pulled the pallium from her body or she disrobed herself although all
agree the unusual legal tactic was resorted to because the defence was going
not well. The famous legal critique of the
Roman writer Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (circa 35-circa 100), the verdict was
secured “non Hyperidis actione... sed
conspectus corporis” (not by Hypereides' pleading, but by the sight of her
body") and as a gesture it wasn’t unknown in Athenian culture. Although the trial and acquittal (by a
majority vote) are uncontested history, whether the “boobs offered in
mitigation” ever happened is at least suspect but if true, it’s not surprising
the venerable gentlemen judging her were impressed because she also modelled
her nude form for the sculptor Praxiteles who based his Aphrodite of Knidos on those sessions. In the late eighteen century, something of a Phryne
cult formed among European artists although what is history and what myth in
the stories of her illustrious career is mostly uncertain although there’s no
doubt she’d often have worn a pallium.
Containing
bilberry, witch hazel, mangosteen, sage, rosemary, calendula, rose flower, sea
buckthorn, lemon grass, grapefruit, nettle & Iceland moss, Life Roots'
Palliate Cream is advertized as an agent to (1) moisturize, (2) reduce
inflammation & (3) protect against dryness.
This would suggest the product is thought something which genuinely
improves the state of the skin, rather than just “papering over the cracks” (as
some skin-care products unashamedly are).
The phrase “to paper over the
cracks” is a particular sense of palliation meaning “to use a temporary
expedient; to create the semblance of order or agreement; temporarily to
conceal problems”. The phrase (in
English translation) is attributed to the Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck
(1815-1989; Chancellor of the German Empire 1871-1890) who used the equivalent German
expression in a letter dated 14 August 1865 during the negotiations of the
Convention of Gastein (1865), a treaty between Austria and Prussia which
temporarily would postpone the onset of the Austro-Prussian War (1866) and can
thus be thought a prelude to the wars and the subsequent system of intricately interlocked
treaties which would be the framework of the Bismarckian form of Reichism: “We are working eagerly to preserve the peace
and to cover the cracks in the building.”
Under Bismarck, the stresses inherent in the structure were contained
but in the hands of hiss less able successors, the forces became unleashed and
consumed the continent ending the rule of four dynastic empires. Still, “papering
over the cracks” remains often the way politics is done, usually the way
coalitions are formed and of late, a new flavor of the technique has emerged: Benjamin
Netanyahu (b 1949; Israeli prime minister 1996-1999, 2009-2021 and since 2022)
doesn’t care if people see the cracks through the paper.
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