Make Your Point: SANATIVE

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pronounce SANATIVE:

SAN uh tiv

connect this word to others:

In Latin, sanus means "sane or healthy," sanitas means "health," and sanare means "to heal."

Those words trickled into English ones like sanitary, sane and insane, sanity and insanity, and the one we're checking out now: sanative, which describes things that make you feel sane, whole, and healthy.

See if you can recall a close synonym of sanative:

From the Latin salus, meaning "good health," the word sal____y means "good for your health, your soul, your reputation, or your education," as in "Maybe a cold shower is sal___ y... but, no thanks."

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

"Sanative" traces back to the Latin sanare, "to heal."

For hundreds of years in English, we've used "sanative" to describe things that are healthy and healing for the body, the mind, or the spirit.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "This music has sanative powers;" "The music seems sanative."

Other forms:

There are a couple of nouns: "sanation" and "sanativeness." Both are extremely rare.

how to use it:

When you want a fresh, emphatic, surprising, literary, old-fashioned synonym of "curative," "therapeutic," and "restorative," you can pick the rare word "sanative." It helps you strike a positive, fanciful tone as you describe things that heal or soothe your soul or spirit.

Despite being rare, it's pretty easy to understand, even if it's new to your listeners.

You might talk about the sanative value, power, influence, or properties of something: "We headed outdoors, seeking the sanative power of a springtime rain."

examples:

"The magnetism of [Walt Whitman's] presence in the military hospitals was more sanative than the doctors' physic."
— G. W. Foote, Flowers of Freethought , 1893

"The morning wind had sweetened the streets. Lawns, hedges, vines, and all the greens seemed washed and preened to meet the sun... There is something so simple and sanative about the restoring night—the rest of healing and health."
— Will Levington Comfort, She Buildeth Her House, 1911

has this page helped you understand "sanative"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "sanative" without saying "curing" or "healing."

try it out:

Fill in the blanks: "After (some kind of difficult, stressful, or effortful experience), I crave the sanative influence of (something)."

Example: "After a day of traveling, waiting in crowded airports, and listening to the whining of frustrated children, I crave the sanative influence of silence and solitude."

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for March is "Tidbits and Titles: Books That Became Movies!"

I provide the tidbits; you provide the title. And every answer will be a book that has been made into a movie. To see the answer, scroll all the way down. Let's play!

Here's a quote from the book: "Americans no longer experience vacations. They simply Sony them so they can ignore them for the rest of the year."

Here are some words and phrases that often appear in that book: Body, breath, cigarette, cops, courtroom, gun, hospital, kid, lawyer, mother, scared, smiled, stared, subpoena, trailer, U.S. marshals, watched, Yes sir.

What's the book's title?

review this word:

1. A near opposite of SANATIVE is

A. SAGACIOUS (street-smart).
B. GREGARIOUS (very social).
C. NOXIOUS (harmful to the health).

2. The towering ohia trees and tiny sparkling waterfalls near Onomea Bay have a mystical, sanative kind of energy that can _____.

A. soothe your spirit
B. fill you with excitement
C. delight all of your senses

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:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A 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.

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