anodyne |ˈanəˌdīn| (an-uh-DINE)
-adjective
not likely to provoke dissent or offense; uncontentious or inoffensive, often deliberately so : anodyne new age music | I attempted to keep the conversation as anodyne as possible.
-noun
a pain-killing drug or medicine.
• figurative. something that alleviates a person's mental distress : "the husband's dull agony and wild bewilderment, his poor, clumsy tries at finding an anodyne in little lively ladies" - Constant Reader
ORIGIN mid 16th cent.: via Latin from Greek anōdunos ‘painless,’ from an- ‘without’ + odunē ‘pain.’
