English
placation
Placation comes from Latin placatio ‘appeasement’, and goes back to plācō.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplācō1‘to appease’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplacatio2‘appeasement’
- Englishearliest quotation 1888placation2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin placatio
- 2 Wiktionary, English placation
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1888, Manners and meals: “The refusal, at certain times and seasons, of food…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplācōWiktionary, Latin placatio‘to appease’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplacatioWiktionary, English placation‘appeasement’
- Englishearliest quotation 1888placationWiktionary, English placation. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1888, Manners and meals: “The refusal, at certain times and seasons, of food…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *pleHk- ‘pleasingness or permission’
through Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- ‘wide and flat’
field, floor, explain, plane, palm, plain, clan, explanation, archipelago, fluke, parma, explanatory, playa, flounder, planar, placenta, lech, esplanade, pelagic, polonium, palatine, plantar, veld, flay, floe, purdah, llano, planta, 49 more
through Latin plācō ‘to appease’
Today it means
noun A process or act of placating; appeasement or an expression of appeasement.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “placation”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin placatio. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin plācō / placation