Etymology From Middle English mitigaten (“to relieve pain, soothe; (swelling) to abate; (hemorrhoids) to relieve; (the mind) to placate, appease; to end, check; to stop, cease”), from mitigat(e) (“mitigated, alleviated, relived”, also used as the past participle of mitigaten) + -en (verb-forming suffix), borrowed from Latin mītigātus, the perfect passive participle of mītigō (“to make soft, ripe; to tame, pacify”), from mītis (“gentle, mild, ripe”) + -igō (“to do, make”), of uncertain origin, but perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁y- (“mild, soft”).
1
Of problems or flaws To reduce, lessen, or decrease and thereby to make less severe or easier to bear.
Measures are pursuing to prevent or mitigate the usual consequences of such outrages, and with the hope of their succeeding at least to avert general hostility.1795, George Washington, Seventh State of the Union Address:
But in yielding to it the retaliation has been mitigated as much as possible, both in its extent and in its character...1813, James Madison, Fifth State of the Union Address:
4 more examples
Then they tell us that vaccination will mitigate the disease that it will make it milder.1896, Walter Hadwen, The Case Against Vaccination:
Then I discovered the brilliance of the landscape around was mitigated by blue spectacles.1900 December – 1901 August, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter 7, in The First Men in the Moon, London: George Newnes, […], published 1901, →OCLC:
The plague had not been kind to him, yet had left him this small furry thing to mitigate his sorrow; and when one is very young, one can find great relief in the lively antics of a black kitten.1920, H. P. Lovecraft, The Cats of Ulthar:
This highly-aggressive approach had results, but briefly caused a major uproar in parts of the United States, which was mitigated by the Webster–Ashburton Treaty in 1842, which formalised the U.S. Navy's contribution to the antislavery efforts.2018 December 1, Drachinifel, 8:56 from the start, in Anti-Slavery Patrols - The West Africa Squadron, archived from the original on 29 Nov 2024:
2
To downplay.
3
Proscribed To give force or effect toward preventing a problem.
Etymology From Middle English mitigat(e) (“mitigated”, also used as the past participle of mitigaten and of mitigate in Early Modern English), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.