Comfort
nounA state of physical ease and freedom from pain or hardship, or the things that provide it.
How to spell comfort
7 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce comfort
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does comfort mean?
- nounA state of physical ease and freedom from pain or hardship, or the things that provide it.
- verbTo soothe or console someone who is in grief, distress, or pain.
Comfort in a sentence
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noun
The new mattress gave her real comfort after months of back pain.
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verb
The nurse stayed to comfort the frightened patient before surgery.
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noun
They could finally afford to live in comfort after paying off the mortgage.
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verb
She tried to comfort her grieving friend with quiet words.
Where does comfort come from?
Language of origin: Latin
Comfort traces back to the Latin verb confortare, which meant 'to strengthen greatly', built from the intensive prefix com- 'thoroughly' and fortis 'strong', the same root that gives us 'fort', 'fortify', and 'force'. In its earliest life the word was about giving someone strength and courage rather than soft cushions; to comfort a person originally meant to embolden or fortify them. It travelled into English through Old French conforter in the 1200s, and over the centuries the sense softened from 'to strengthen' toward 'to soothe and ease distress', and then to the modern idea of physical ease and pleasant surroundings. The hidden 'r' before the 't', a leftover of fortis 'strong', is the small spelling detail worth remembering, since the second syllable is swallowed in speech.
How the word is built
- com- (intensive, from Latin com- 'thoroughly')
- fort (from Latin fortis 'strong')
- -fort noun/verb stem
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