Soothing or relieving pain; having a calming or pain-reducing effect (archaic medical term).
From Greek an- (without) + odyne (pain), meaning 'without pain.' Related to the modern word anodyne.
In medieval medicine, physicians would prescribe anodine remedies—often opium-based—when they had no idea what was actually causing the pain. They were essentially just hoping to numb the symptoms while the disease raged on underneath!
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