Trending: ‘mitigation’

Mitigation was among our top lookups on May 5th, 2020, after President Trump used the word several times in his remarks on the expected death toll from COVID-19.

"We're gonna beat those numbers," says Pres Trump of new projections anticipating steep increases in Coronavirus death toll. He says those projections don't take mitigation into account. He says America wants to open and he says Americans "think of themselves as warriors." pic.twitter.com/jmefKIXEpp

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) May 5, 2020

We define mitigation as “the process or result of making something less severe, dangerous, painful, harsh, or damaging; the act of mitigating something or the state of being mitigated.” Mitigate, which comes from the Latin mitis (“soft”) has several meanings, including “to cause to become less harsh or hostile," “to make less severe or painful,” and “extenuate.”

But, alas! this child, for whom they had devoutly returned thanks to God, and offered so many fervent prayers, was soon taken from them by death. The churches of Geneva and Lausanne showed the parent marks of sympathy. Feeble mitigations of so heavy a trial!
— New York Observer and Chronicle, 14 Aug. 1856