Make Your Point > Archived Issues > ANESTHETIZE
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If you've been watching the news too much, you may have become anesthetized to all the violence and heartache: numb to it, desensitized to it, paralyzed, unable to feel the proper amount of sadness or outrage because it's all just too much.
And if you're anesthetized, you might also be n_npl_ssed: unable to move, speak, or act. Or dec_r_br_ted: unable to think, as if your brain has been switched off or removed.
When that happens, I recall what Mr. Rogers said (which I've shared before and is worth resharing):
"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.' To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother's words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers - so many caring people in this world."
It helps the anesthesia wear off.
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"ANESTHETIZE"
With Greek roots that mean "without feeling" or "without sensation," the word "anesthesia" means "a loss of the ability to feel."
Often this is literal: before you get surgery, you get either general anaesthesia, so that you're asleep and you can't feel anything in your entire body, or local anaesthesia, so that you can't feel anything in just a specific area of the body.
To anesthetize people, then, is to make them unable to feel anything, either physically or emotionally.
Pronunciation:
uh NESS thuh tize
Part of speech:
Verb, the transitive kind: you say that "something or someone anesthetizes someone else," as in "the dentists anesthetize their patients."
Most often, we use it passively: "he's become anesthetized by the boredom," "she's anesthetized to their criticism."
Other forms we use often in a figurative way:
anesthesia, anesthetized, anesthetizing
Spelling note:
Outside of the US, people write "anaesthetize," with that extra "a" in there.
How to use it:
This word's tone is cold, harsh, and medical. When you refer to people, especially groups of people, as anesthetized, you're comparing them to passive, unfeeling, unthinking, powerless recipients of powerful drugs.
Often we say people are anesthetized by whatever kept coming at them until they stopped being able to care. "He was anesthetized by a constant influx of rude customers."
And often we say people are anesthetized to whatever they can't care about anymore, or anesthetized to something's power, effects, or influence. "It used to infuriate him when his customers snapped their fingers at him, but now he's anesthetized to it."
examples:
We heard "Whenever, Wherever" three times an hour all summer and grew anesthetized to its bubbly joy.
"We meet [the taxidermist] Jessa-Lynn, shattered and up late, anesthetized on cheap beer, hands moving on autopilot as she restores the dignity to tattered pieces of roadkill."
— Parul Sehgal, The New York Times, 28 May 2019
has this page helped you understand "anesthetize"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "anesthetize" without saying "render numb" or "make emotionless."
try it out:
Fill in the blanks: "(Some irritating sound, sight, or experience happened). (After a certain point), (someone) felt like an anesthetized lab rat."
Example: "The photo printer jammed every four or five minutes, emitting a loud, hysterical beep as if to holler, 'Heeey! Get ready to yank out torn bits of photo paper while your orders fall into disarray and your customers glare at you!' A few hours in to each shift, I felt like an anesthetized lab rat."
before you review, play:
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
In August, we're playing the time-honored Game of Venery!
We're inventing terms for groups of things: terms that James Lipton, the author of An Exaltation of Larks, calls "shards of poetry and truth." Example terms of venery include lovely ones like "a conflagration of fireflies" and silly ones like "a myopia of umpires," "a rash of dermatologists," and "an unemployment of graduates."
In each issue this month, I'll offer two templates. Have fun filling them in and sharing your inventions with your family, being as lofty, silly, or bawdy as you like. In each subsequent issue, I'll list the actual terms that appear in Lipton's book.
From the previous issue:
1. An evanescence of _____
2. A _____ of blues (the musical genre)
The terms listed in the book are "an evanescence of traveler's cheques" and "a rhapsody of blues."
Try these today:
1. An undulation of _____
2. A _____ of breakdancers
review this word:
1. A near opposite of ANESTHETIZE is
A. UNITE.
B. REVIVE.
C. CONFIRM.
2. It seems designed to anesthetize, this _____ music with all the _____.
A. bright .. harp and violin
B. techno .. oonts-oonts-oonts-oonts
C. cerebral .. allusions, metaphors, and thought-provoking images
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
If you've been watching the news too much, you may have become anesthetized to all the violence and heartache: numb to it, desensitized to it, paralyzed, unable to feel the proper amount of sadness or outrage because it's all just too much.
"ANESTHETIZE" With Greek roots that mean "without feeling" or "without sensation," the word "anesthesia" means "a loss of the ability to feel."
We heard "Whenever, Wherever" three times an hour all summer and grew anesthetized to its bubbly joy.
Explain the meaning of "anesthetize" without saying "render numb" or "make emotionless."
Fill in the blanks: "(Some irritating sound, sight, or experience happened). (After a certain point), (someone) felt like an anesthetized lab rat."
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
1. A near opposite of ANESTHETIZE is
|