English → Latin
“relieve” in Latin
lēniōto soften, soothe; to mollify, assuage, appease, pacifymītigōto make soft, ripe, or tender; to mitigate, make mild, tame, pacifydolorpain, ache, hurt; anguish, grief, sorrow; indignation, resentment, anger, fury, vengeancemiseriamisfortune; misery (great unhappiness)aegritūdōillness, sickness; grief, sorrowīraire, anger, wrathtrīstitiasadness, sorrow, melancholy, sloth; the (sad) state of things; moroseness, sournesssevēritāsseriousness, gravity, sternness, strictness, severitylaborwork; labor, toil, exertion; hardship, trouble, fatigue, suffering, drudgery, distressfebrisfever
The English word relieve itself goes back to Latin levō, through relevo.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
relieve
To alleviate, lenire (to soften; to make less painful or disagreeable; e.g., dolores, miseriam, aegritudinem): mitigare (to make milder: iram, tristitiam, severitatem, dolorem, labores, febrem, etc.: mollire (to soften; iram, impetum): levare, allevare (to lighten; partially remove: levare luctum, metum, molestias, curam; also, levare aliquem luctu, Liv.: allevare sollicitudines, onus): sublevare (poricula, offensionem, res adversas): laxare (to lessen the tightness of anything that compresses: laborem, Liv.): expedire: explicare (to render the performance of anything easier): temperare (to temper by an admixture of an opposite feeling; e.g., *hilaritatis or tristitiae modum, Cic.). To relieve anybody’s labor, partem laboris alicui minuere: to relieve in some degree, aliqua ex parte allevare: to relieve hard work by relaxation, graviora opera lusibus jocisque distinguere: to relieve from pecuniary difficulties, difficultate pecuniarum exuere.
To take the place of another at a post of duty, etc., subire alicui or aliquem, with or without per vices; succedere alicui or in alicujus locum (to succeed in office). To relieve wearied troops by fresh ones, milites integros submittere defatigatis; defatigatis integri et recentes succedunt: to relieve soldiers on guard, vices stationum permutare (Curt., 8, 6, 11: ☞ vices variare, Verg., Aen., 9, 164, is perhaps only poetic). The guards relieve each other, succedunt alii in stationem aliorum.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for relieve?
- The usual Latin words for “relieve” are lēniō, mītigō, dolor; also miseria, aegritūdō, īra. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.