Soothe

How to spell soothe

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce soothe

What does soothe mean?

1. verbTo calm or comfort someone who is upset, anxious, or distressed.
2. verbTo ease or relieve a physical pain or discomfort.

Soothe in a sentence

• A quiet lullaby can soothe a fretful baby back to sleep.

• The cool gel is meant to soothe sunburnt skin.

• She spoke softly to soothe the frightened passengers during the delay.

• Honey and lemon can soothe a sore throat overnight.

Where does soothe come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes from the Old English verb sōthian, which meant 'to prove or show something to be true', built on the noun sōth meaning 'truth'. For centuries it carried that legal, truth-telling sense, and a 'soothsayer' is literally a 'truth-sayer', someone who claims to tell the truth about the future. From the idea of confirming or agreeing with someone, the meaning drifted in the 1500s towards flattering or humouring a person, and from there to calming and comforting them. The modern sense of easing distress or pain settled in during the 1600s. The silent final 'e' and the unexpected 'th' (sounded as in 'breathe', not 'tooth') are the spelling traps, and remembering the old root 'sooth', as in soothsayer, helps fix the double 'o' in place.

How the word is built

• sooth (Old English sōth: truth, the verb sōthian: to prove true)
• -e (silent final e)