The word for today is…

mitigate (verb):

1: to cause to become less harsh or hostile : mollify
2a: to make less severe or painful : alleviate
b: extenuate

Source : Merriam -Webster

Etymology : The meaning of mitigate is straightforward enough: to make something—such as a problem, symptom, or punishment—less harsh or severe. Sometimes, however, mitigate appears where the similar-looking militate is expected. That word, which is often followed by against, means “to have weight or effect,” as in “your unexcused absences are likely to militate against your getting a promotion.” The two words are not closely related (mitigate comes from the Latin verb mitigare, meaning “to soften,” whereas militate traces to militare, meaning “to engage in warfare”), but the confusion between the two has existed for long enough that some usage commentators have accepted “mitigate against” as an idiomatic alternative to militate. Even William Faulkner used mitigate in this way in his 1932 short story, Centaur in Brass, writing “It’s as though there were some intangible and invisible social force that mitigates against him.” Unless you’re Faulkner, though, it’s probably best to keep mitigate and militate distinct.

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David is a retired surgeon originally from London who came to New Zealand twenty-seven years ago after being delayed in Singapore for thirteen years on leaving the UK. He was coerced into studying Latin...