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meliorate (MEEL-yuh-rayt, MEE-lee-uh-rayt) - v.t., to made better, improve; to heal or solve a problem.
Not a degenerate form of ameliorate, its now more common synonym, but if anything the reverse: meliorate was adopted in 1542 from the past participle of Latin meliōrāre, improve, from melior, better (an irregular comparative of bonus, good, that probably originally meant something like stronger), while ameliorate was altered from meliorate in 1656.
---L.
Not a degenerate form of ameliorate, its now more common synonym, but if anything the reverse: meliorate was adopted in 1542 from the past participle of Latin meliōrāre, improve, from melior, better (an irregular comparative of bonus, good, that probably originally meant something like stronger), while ameliorate was altered from meliorate in 1656.
---L.
