placebo

[GIR]

My ENT gave me what I believe are placebos (he pretty much told me they were!)

That made me wonder where the word placebo comes from. I know it’s latin “I will please”, and I think it comes from the requiem mass. Does anyone know if this is true, and if so, what is the context of the word in the liturgy?

 

[Spirithound]

hmmm…that’s a little problematic if you think you’re taking a placebo…then there’s no chance of the placebo effect happening…

Anyways, from my search, it appears that “placebo” does not occur in the requiem Mass. “Placeat” does, but in a context that would not lead me to believe it does not also occur in the Sunday Mass as well.

 

[Apollos]

The exact word *placebo *isn’t in the Requiem mass itself, but it is in the vespers for the office of the dead: medievalist.net/hourstxt/deadves.htm

 

[MarkThompson]

The exact word *placebo *isn’t in the Requiem mass itself, but it is in the vespers for the office of the dead: medievalist.net/hourstxt/deadves.htm

Right, it’s from Psalm 114:9 in the Vulgate: “Placebo Domino in regione vivorum” (“I will please the Lord in the land of the living.”).

My personal guess is that the use of the word to describe a sham medication came about through the ordinary signification of its Latin – i.e., a placebo “pleases,” or satisfies, someone who has asked for medicine, without doing more than that – rather than through some connection to the Psalm or, still less, the Vesper Office of the Dead.

 

[tee_eff_em]

That made me wonder where the word placebo comes from. I know it’s latin “I will please”, and I think it comes from the requiem mass. Does anyone know if this is true, and if so, what is the context of the word in the liturgy?

…It comes from the Latin language, which predates the Church…?

tee