Consolation

How to spell consolation

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce consolation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does consolation mean?

1. nounComfort or relief offered to someone after a loss or disappointment.

Consolation in a sentence

• The kind note from her colleagues offered some consolation after the redundancy.

• Finishing second was little consolation when he had trained for the title.

Where does consolation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Consolation comes from the Latin consolatio, a noun built on the verb consolari, meaning 'to comfort someone' or 'to relieve their distress'. That verb joins the intensifying prefix con- to solari, 'to soothe or comfort', so the original sense was the act of fully comforting a grieving or disappointed person. English took the word in during the 1300s by way of Old French consolacion, keeping the soft, gentle meaning it still carries today. The same solari root sits inside the related verb 'console' and the adjective 'disconsolate', which describes someone beyond comfort. Knowing the root sol points to comfort helps fix the single 's' and the unstressed 'o' that turns into a faint schwa in the middle of the word.

How the word is built

• con- (intensive, fully)
• sol (from Latin solari: to comfort)
• -ation (noun suffix)