sedative

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sedatif,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French sedatif and directly borrowed from Medieval Latin sēdātīvus (“calming, allaying”),^[3][2][4][5] from sēdātus, the past participle of sēdō (“to settle, calm”),^[6][7][3] the causative of sedeō (“to sit”),^[3] from Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”).^[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the OED leave it open whether the source was French or Medieval Latin,^[7][4] and Dictionary.com takes it from Medieval Latin, with French as a possible intermediary.^[8] The adjective sedate has the same Latin source.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In medicine, tending to alleviate pain, soothing: about 1425, in Arderne's Treatises of Fistula,^[4] and in the English Chauliac, which the Middle English Dictionary dates to before 1425 with a query: "He saiþ oile violet to be more cedatiue þan oil rosis".^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word was a medical term for what eases pain, and that translation of Chauliac also uses it as a noun, for a preparation that does so.^[2][9] The OED and Etymonline record the noun much later: for anything that soothes from 1785, in Paley, and for a drug from 1797, in the Encyclopædia Britannica.^[4][3] Etymonline takes the drug sense as short for sedative salt.^[3] The adjective was applied outside medicine from before 1797, in Burke.^[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged, whose dates are later, has 1779 for the adjective and 1797 for the noun.^[7] The word now especially means a drug that induces calm or sleep,^[9][10] and Dickens could write of breakfast "with the additional sedative of a news-paper".^[9] Medicine names sedatives by the organ or system they act on, such as cardiac or respiratory.^[11] The verb sedate in the sense of treating with sedatives is recorded by 1945, and is formed to go with the noun sedation.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – in medicine, tending to alleviate pain, soothing; also as a noun, a preparation that does so.^[4][2][9]
• 1785 – noun, whatever soothes or allays.^[4][3]
• 1797 – noun, a sedative medicine.^[4][3][7]
• before 1797 – adjective outside medicine, calming.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Tending to calm or tranquilize; easing irritability, nervousness or excitement.^[7][12]
2. Of a drug, promoting calm or inducing sleep.^[13][9]
3. (medicine) Easing pain; soothing.^[9][4]

Noun

1. A drug that calms a person or sends them to sleep: The vet gave the horse a sedative.^{[7][10][13][11]}
2. Anything that soothes or allays.^[4][3][9]

Related words

• sedate
• sedation
• sedentary
• sediment
• seat
• sit

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (2009), 5th ed., Harlow: Pearson Longman
11. ^ a b Stedman's Medical Dictionary, Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
13. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press