Word of the Day

Thursday September 10, 2009

ameliorate [uh-MEEL-yuh-rayt]

transitive verb

Treasury officials could issue a nonbinding advisory opinion critical of the pay package that that would carry no legal weight but could ameliorate some of the expected political fallout. Or it could do nothing and face the wrath of the public and Congress, which will consider legislation to limit executive pay after its August recess.

Stephen Labaton, "U.S. Weighs Action Over Citi's $100 Million Man", New York Times, Aug 15, 2009
Moreover, not all opinions are of equal value. That said, Jonathan Manthorpe's column denying the role of humans in climate change ("Global warming is the new religion of First World urban elites," Sun, July 29) is a deeply flawed, Palin-esque polemic that frames efforts to ameliorate climate disruption as darkly conspiratorial.

Chris Genovali, "Climate skeptics fiddle with truth while planet burns", The Vancouver Sun, Aug 5, 2009
Cooperation of our Federal reserve system and our banks with the central banks in foreign countries has contributed to localize and ameliorate a number of serious financial crises or moderate the pressures upon us and thus avert disasters which would have affected us.

Herbert Hoover (1874 - 1964) The 31st President of the United States from 1929 to 1933. State of the Union Addresses of Herbert Hoover (1929)

Origin of the Word

Ameliorate, approximately 1650, derives from Old French, ameillorer, a + mellior " to better," from Latin ad + meliorare, "to make better."