obtund means to reduce the edge or effects of; to mitigate; to dull. It carries an Arena rating of 1512, earned across 10 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, obtund ranks #1,736 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #1,855 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #2,712 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #4,430 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words.
obtund is pronounced /əbˈtʌnd/.
Why “obtund” is a great word
To reduce the sharpness, intensity, or sensitivity of something; to dull or blunt. From Latin obtundere ("to beat against, to dull, to deaden"), from ob- ("against") + tundere ("to beat"), first attested in English c. 1400. Unlike "blunt," which concerns the dulling of an edge, or "mitigate," which seeks to lessen severity, to obtund is to actively deaden perception itself. It is the thick wool of fever wrapped around the brain, the way a third whiskey no longer tastes like fire, the gradual silencing of grief from a piercing shriek to a constant, bearable hum—a slow beating-against of the sensitive self, until the world arrives not sharp and singular, but muffled, as through a door.
Etymology
Latin obtundere (“to dull", "deaden", "deafen”), from ob- (see ob-) + tundere. More at obtuse.
verb
- To reduce the edge or effects of; to mitigate; to dull.e.g.“[…] the use of alcoholic decoctions[…] which are given as medicines to allay pain, obtund nerve sensibility, to cure the little sufferer of his vital manifestations […]” — 1900, Martha M. Allen, Alcohol, a Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine, page 319:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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