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Phlegmatic vs Anodyne - What's the difference?

phlegmatic | anodyne |

As adjectives the difference between phlegmatic and anodyne

is that phlegmatic is not easily excited to action or passion; calm; sluggish while anodyne is capable]] of [[soothe|soothing or eliminating pain.

As nouns the difference between phlegmatic and anodyne

is that phlegmatic is one who has a phlegmatic disposition while anodyne is (pharmacology) any medicine or other agent that relieves pain.

phlegmatic

English

Alternative forms

* phlegmatick * phlegmaticke * phlegmatique

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Not easily excited to action or passion; calm; sluggish.
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year=1873 , author=Jules Verne , title=Around the World in 80 Days , chapter=2 citation , passage=Calm and phlegmatic , with a clear eye, Mr. Fogg seemed a perfect type of that English composure which Angelica Kauffmann has so skilfully represented on canvas.}}
  • * 2013 , A.O. Scott, “How It Looks to Think: Watch Her,” Rev. of , dir. by Margarethe von Trotta, New York Times 29 May 2013: C1. Print.
  • Their friendship (immortalized in a splendid volume of letters that has clearly served as one of Ms. von Trotta's sources) is a fascinating study in cultural and temperamental contrast, an impulsive and witty American paired with a steady, phlegmatic German.
  • (archaic) Abounding in phlegm; as, phlegmatic humors; a phlegmatic constitution.
  • Generating, causing, or full of phlegm.
  • * Sir Thomas Browne
  • cold and phlegmatic habitations
  • Watery (en).
  • Synonyms

    * apathetic, sluggish, cold-blooded, unflappable, stoic

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One who has a phlegmatic disposition.
  • anodyne

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Capable]] of [[soothe, soothing or eliminating pain.
  • * 1847 , Littell's Living Age , number 161, 12 June 1847, in Volume 13, page 483:
  • Many a time has the vapor of ether been inhaled for the relief of oppressed lungs; many a time has the sought relief been thus obtained; and just so many times has the discovery of the wonderful anodyne properties of this gas, as affecting all bodily suffering, been brushed past and overlooked.
  • * 1910 , Edward L. Keyes, Diseases of the Genito-Urinary Organs , page 211:
  • The citrate is the most efficient as an alkali, but irritates some stomachs, the liquor the most anodyne , the acetate the most diuretic.
  • (figuratively) Soothing or relaxing.
  • Classical music is rather anodyne .
  • Noncontentious, blandly agreeable, unlikely to cause offence or debate; bland, inoffensive.
  • * 2003 , The Guardian , 20 May 2003:
  • It all became so routine, so anodyne , so dull.
  • * 2010 , "Rattled", The Economist , 9 Dec 2010:
  • States typically like to stick to anodyne messages, like saving wildflowers or animals. But every so often a controversy crops up.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (pharmacology) Any medicine or other agent that relieves pain.
  • (figuratively) A source of relaxation or comfort.
  • *1890 , (Oscar Wilde), The Picture of Dorian Gray , ch. VII:
  • *:The air was heavy with the perfume of the flowers, and their beauty seemed to bring him an anodyne for his pain.
  • *1929 , (Virginia Woolf), A Room of One's Own , page 79:
  • So, with a sigh, because novels so often provide an anodyne and not an antidote, glide one into torpid slumbers instead of rousing one with a burning brand.

    Derived terms

    * anodynia * anodynous

    References

    * *

    Anagrams

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