conciliate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin conciliātus, the past participle of conciliō (“to bring together, unite in feeling, make friendly”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} and the OED derives it from the participial stem.^[7][8] That verb is from concilium (“meeting, assembly, council”),^[7][2][3][5] the source of council.^[6][9][10] Etymonline analyses the noun as com- (“together”) and a suffixed form of Proto-Indo-European *kele- (“to shout”), the notion being a calling together;^[2][11] compare reconcile.^[6] An earlier formation, Middle English concile (“to reconcile”), is recorded from the late 14th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To gain goodwill or esteem by acts that soothe or pacify: 1545, in G. Joye's Exposicion of Daniel.^[7][3][5]

Semantic evolution

The OED remarks that the senses had already developed in Latin and so appear somewhat disjointedly in English.^[7] "To procure, acquire" is recorded from 1548 to 1794,^[7] and "to reconcile, make compatible" from 1573, in a letter of Archbishop Parker.^[7] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as "To gain; to procure good will; to reconcile", quoting Browne on plants that "conciliate affection".^[12] Only in 1782, in Priestley, is it recorded with the person as object, "to overcome the hostility of by soothing", which is now the leading sense;^[7][10] in 1796, in Morse, it means winning someone over from distrust to one's side.^[7] The intransitive use, of coming round to friendliness, was short-lived (1747–75),^[7] but a new one arose in industrial disputes: to act as a mediator, from 1977.^[7] The noun conciliation is recorded from 1543, two years before the verb.^[13][3]

Timeline

• 1545 – to gain goodwill by soothing or pacifying acts.^[7][3][5]
• 1548 – to procure, acquire (obsolete by 1794).^[7]
• 1573 – to reconcile, make compatible.^[7]
• c. 1615 – to make acceptable, recommend (obsolete), in Chapman's Homer.^[7]
• 1646 – of things, to gain goodwill, in Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica.^[7]
• 1747 – intransitive, to come round to friendliness (obsolete by 1775).^[7]
• 1782 – to overcome the distrust or hostility of a person by soothing means.^[7]
• 1796 – to win over from hostility to one's side.^[7]
• 1977 – in industrial disputes, to act as a mediator.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To overcome the hostility or distrust of someone by friendly acts; to placate or appease: The manager tried to conciliate the angry tenants with a rent rebate.^[10][5][7]
2. To gain goodwill or favour by pleasing behaviour.^[10][5][7]
3. To make things compatible; to reconcile (Collins labels this archaic).^[5][7][10]
4. To act as a mediator between the parties to a dispute.^[7]
5. (obsolete, 1548–1794) To acquire or get.^[7][5][8]

Word family

• conciliable
• conciliation
• conciliator
• conciliative
• conciliatory
• conciliatingly
• unconciliated
• nonconciliating

Related words

• council
• reconcile
• reconciliate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins