PAL-ee-ayt
(verb) To reduce the severity of something without removing its cause; to ease or alleviate.
Medication can palliate the symptoms, but it won’t cure the disease.
Fun Fact
“Palliate” comes from Latin palliare, “to cloak.” It refers to masking pain or consequences, especially in medicine or diplomacy. Palliative care focuses on comfort, not cure—a way to preserve dignity and reduce suffering when solutions are limited.
SEM-uh-for
(noun) a system of conveying information through visual signals, often using flags, lights, or mechanical arms, especially over long distances.
Before modern radio communication, ships relied on semaphore to send urgent messages across open water.
Semaphore comes from the early 19th-century French word sémaphore, which itself is rooted in the Greek words sēma (meaning “sign”) and phoros (meaning “bearing” or “carrying”), literally translating to “sign-bearer.” The term was first used to describe mechanical signaling towers across France that transmitted messages visually from station to station long before electrical communication existed.
Fun Fact
Semaphore comes from the early 19th-century French word sémaphore, which itself is rooted in the Greek words sēma (meaning “sign”) and phoros (meaning “bearing” or “carrying”), literally translating to “sign-bearer.” The term was first used to describe mechanical signaling towers across France that transmitted messages visually from station to station long before electrical communication existed.
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