solatium
Americannoun
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something given in compensation for inconvenience, loss, injury, or the like; recompense.
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Law. damages awarded to a plaintiff as compensation for personal suffering or grief arising from an injury.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of solatium
1810–20; < Medieval Latin sōlātium, variant spelling of sōlācium, Latin: solace
Explanation
A solatium is compensation given to comfort someone who has suffered a loss or injury due to someone else's actions. In court, solatium is a sum of money awarded to a plaintiff for pain and suffering. The word solatium is borrowed from Latin, where the word means solace, "comfort offered to or felt by someone who is disappointed or miserable." A grieving person may "take solatium in" — feel comforted by — the knowledge that a deceased loved one lived a joyful life. In a legal situation, a judge or jury may order that a solatium (usually money) be paid by a person or company who caused harm to the person or people who suffered from it.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Whether this was true or was only meant as a solatium I do not know.
From My Autobiography A Fragment by Müller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
A solatium is a Debating Society spree, held in December or January; a gaudeamus is a festival of the same kind, only rather more ambitious, celebrated towards the close of the session.
From The Scarlet Gown being verses by a St. Andrews Man by Murray, Robert F. (Robert Fuller)
We have seen that the restoration of Velasquez to the Governorship of Cuba came as a sort of solatium for his loss and humiliation with respect to Mexico.
From The History of Cuba, vol. 1 by Johnson, Willis Fletcher
"Or as a solatium, if you fail," remarked the other genially.
From The Crown of Life by Gissing, George
She also sent to the women he had married and divorced, and gave them of his good the equivalent of their dowers and a solatium for losing their noses.
From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 14 by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
You ought to have brought the matter before us yourselves: at least, now, support him with the necessary "solatia."
From The Letters of Cassiodorus Being A Condensed Translation Of The Variae Epistolae Of Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator by Hodgkin, Thomas
Petau tells us that he wrote verses to solace the evils of old age— —— Petavius æger Cantabat veteris quærens solatia morbi.
From Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 by Disraeli, Isaac
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
