irenic
English
WOTD – 21 September 2023
Etymology
From Ancient Greek εἰρηνικός (eirēnikós, “characterized by peace, peaceful”) + English -ic (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘of or pertaining to’). Εἰρηνικός (Eirēnikós) is derived from εἰρήνη (eirḗnē, “peace”)[1] (possibly from εἴρω (eírō, “to fasten together”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“(verb) to bind, tie together; (noun) thread”)), or εἴρω (eírō, “to say, speak”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *werh₁- (“to say, speak”))) + -ῐκός (-ikós, suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘of or pertaining to’).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /aɪˈɹiːnɪk/, /-ˈɹɛ-/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /aɪˈɹinɪk/, /-ˈɹɛ-/
- Rhymes: -iːnɪk, -ɛnɪk
- Hyphenation: iren‧ic
Adjective
irenic (comparative more irenic, superlative most irenic)
- (chiefly theology) Promoting or fitted to promote peace or peacemaking, especially over disputes; conciliatory, non-confrontational, peaceful.
- Synonyms: irenical, nonpolemic, nonpolemical, pacific
- Antonyms: contentious, disputatious, polemic, polemical, unirenic; see also Thesaurus:quarrelsome
- 2001 November 30, Hywel Williams, “God the state-builder”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-05-06:
- The idea that the Jews of the region are not genetically distinct from other peoples of the area should be an irenic insight.
- 2002, Colin Jones, “An Enlightening Age”, in The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to Napoleon 1715–99, New York, N.Y., Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 199:
- The philosophes contrasted their own irenic calls for tolerance with the church's historical record as the perennial source of cruelty and fanaticism.
- 2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence has Declined, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, published 2012, →ISBN, page 343:
- The current comity between the United States and China, which have little in common except a river of manufactured goods in one direction and dollars in the other, is a recent reminder of the irenic effects of trade.
Alternative forms
Derived terms
Translations
promoting or fitted to promote peace or peacemaking, especially over disputes — see also conciliatory
References
- “irenic, adj. and n.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022; “irenic, adj. and n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Further reading
- peace on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- “irenic”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
Anagrams
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