Why “dolorifuge” is a great word
A concrete agent or thing that mitigates or removes grief or sorrow. From Latin dolor ("pain, grief, sorrow") and the suffix -fuge (from Latin -fugus, from fugare "to put to flight"). Unlike an "analgesic," a chemist’s specific for the body’s physical pain, or "consolation," the act of sympathetic comfort, a dolorifuge is the tangible instrument of emotional relief. It is the particular quality of late afternoon light falling across a familiar chair now empty, the weight of a sleeping cat on a lap in an empty house, or the peculiar, absorbing warmth of a teacup held between both hands—small, material anchors that momentarily dissolve the larger, shapeless ache, proving that sorrow is a country from which one can, however briefly, be granted passage.