mollify
\MOL-uh-fahy\
verb
1. to soften in feeling or temper, as a person; pacify; appease.
2. to mitigate or reduce; soften: to mollify one's demands.
Quotes
...my mother would be dragged from unconsciousness, hoisting herself grimly out of bed, shuffling across the hall to mollify and soothe, while I slept through it all, conked out like a slug drowning in beer, evading the fallout from my crimes.
-- Margaret Atwood, "The Headless Horseman," Moral Disorder and Other Stories, 2006
Origin
Mollify came to English at the time when Middle English was spoken. It finds its roots in the Latin mollificāre meaning "to make soft."
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