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:
As a solatium he was allowed to rule over the town of Guadix, whither he retired.
From Southern Spain by Calvert, A. F. (Albert Frederick)
But, willing as she was to do all this in the future, I soon discovered that she wanted her small solatium in the present.
From In Accordance with the Evidence by Onions, Oliver [pseud.]
These gentlemen were most of them waiting for College livings, to which they were allowed to carry off, as a solatium, some dozens of College port.
From The Victorian Age The Rede Lecture for 1922 by Inge, William Ralph
The venomous scorn it poured upon those worthless rapscallions afforded him a certain solatium against the discomforts of expatriation by which he was afflicted as a result of their detestable energies.
From Scaramouche by Sabatini, Rafael
Onyway, Deacon, ye’d put your ill-gotten gains to a right use; they might come by the wind, but they wouldna gang wi’ the water; and that’s aye a solatium, as we say.
From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume XV by Stevenson, Robert Louis
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.
