Literary notes about lenitive (AI summary)
In literature, lenitive is often employed to evoke the idea of soothing or alleviating discomfort, whether in a tangible, medicinal context or as a metaphor for emotional relief. Writers describe it as a remedy that eases physical pain, such as when a concoction is mixed into an electuary to temper poison’s effects [1, 2, 3], while others use it metaphorically to signify measures that restore calm and assuage mental distress [4, 5, 6]. In some passages, lenitive becomes a symbol of gentle comfort, a balm that softens the impact of harsher realities and moderates both bodily and emotional pain [7, 8].
- Had he at the same time given me a tea-spoon, it would not have been so improper; for the poison might have been made up as a lenitive electuary.
— from The Book of Three Hundred AnecdotesHistorical, Literary, and Humorous—A New Selection by Various - Take of Diaprunum Lenitive whilst it is warm, four pounds, Scammony prepared two ounce and five drams, mix them into an electuary according to art.
— from The Complete Herbal by Nicholas Culpeper - Or, one or two tea-spoonfuls of Compound Confection. of Senna (lenitive electuary) may occasionally, early in the morning, be taken.
— from Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her Children by Pye Henry Chavasse - Another lenitive by which the throbs of the breast are assuaged, is, the contemplation, not of the same, but of different crimes.
— from The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes, Volume 02 The Rambler, Volume I by Samuel Johnson - Of moods they breathe that care disarm, They pledge us lenitive and calm.
— from John Marr and Other Poems by Herman Melville - And in the hospital of the mind, the lenitive and fostering measures have a still larger share in the work of a moral restoration.
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 358, August 1845 by Various - to that I fear I must look forward, as a lenitive against many evils.
— from Barford Abbey, a Novel: In a Series of Letters by Mrs. (Susannah) Gunning - Playing is sometimes an excellent lenitive to calm the mind, and to smother the ardent fire of love.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova
