placebo
Definitions
A substance with no active medical effect, given as if it were medicine, especially to a control group in a trial.
安慰剂（无实际药效、当作药物给予的物质，尤指试验中给对照组的）。
Something done or said merely to reassure or satisfy, without real effect.
（比喻）仅用来安抚、并无实效的东西或话语。
Root Breakdown
Root-derivedplacebo is Latin for 'I shall please' — the future tense of placēre. A placebo pleases the patient rather than treating the body: believing you're being helped can itself make you feel better.
Root plac still carries 14 more wordsWhy It Means This
The word started life in religion, not medicine. The medieval Latin office for the dead opened with 'Placebo Domino' ('I shall please the Lord'), so the whole service was nicknamed a 'placebo.' Hired mourners who flattered the bereaved were said to 'sing placebo,' which gave the word a tinge of false comfort. By the 18th century doctors borrowed it for a harmless remedy given to please rather than cure — and the meaning stuck.
Common Collocations
- 1.placebo effect安慰剂效应
- 2.placebo group安慰剂组
- 3.placebo-controlled trial安慰剂对照试验
- 4.receive a placebo接受安慰剂治疗
Example Sentences
- 1.
Half the volunteers were given a placebo instead of the real drug.
- 2.
The pill was just a placebo, yet his headache faded.
- 3.
Critics called the new policy a political placebo with no real funding.