placebo

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pləˈsiː.bəʊ/ (UK); /pləˈsi.boʊ/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin placēbō (“I shall please”), the first-person future of Latin placeō (“to please”).^[2][3][4][5] It is the first word of the first antiphon of the Vespers for the Dead, Placebo Domino in regione vivorum “I will please the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 114:9 in the Vulgate).^[5][4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The name of the Vespers in the Office for the Dead (before 1225).^[7][4][5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English to sing placebo meant to flatter or play the sycophant (1340),^[7] and Chaucer used Placebo as the name of a flatterer.^[7] The medical sense, a medicine given more to please the patient than to do any good, is recorded from 1785.^[7][5][3][4] Later it named an inert substance used as a control when testing drugs,^[2][3][6] and the phrase placebo effect is attested from 1900.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1225 – the Vespers for the Dead.^[7][4][5]
• 1340 – in phrases, to flatter or play the sycophant.^[7]
• about 1386 – a flatterer, a sycophant (obsolete).^[7]
• 1785 – a medicine given to please rather than cure.^[7][5][3][4]
• 1900 – placebo effect.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A substance with no medical effect, given to satisfy or reassure a patient.
2. An inactive substance used as a control in testing the effectiveness of a drug.
3. Something of no real value used to soothe or reassure.
4. (Roman Catholicism) The Vespers of the Office for the Dead.

Word family

• placebo effect

Related words

• please
• placid

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press