DEFINITION
noun
: a compensation (as money) given as solace for suffering, loss, or injured feelings.
EXAMPLES
1. The judge ordered the company to pay a solatium to each of the unjustly fired workers.
2. “The amount of cash a politician was required by tradition to dispense regularly in the form of wedding gifts and funeral solatiums for people in his ever-expanding constituency was now, by itself, enough to bankrupt most wealthy men.” — From Robert Whiting’s 1999 book Tokyo Underworld : The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan.
DID YOU KNOW?
In legal circles, a solatium is a payment made to a victim as compensation for injured feelings or emotional pain and suffering (such as the trauma following the wrongful death of a relative), as distinct from payment for physical injury or for damaged property. Like many legal terms, “solatium,” which first appeared in English in the early 19th century, is a product of Latin, where the word means “solace.” The Latin noun is related to the verb “solari,” which means “to console” and from which we get our words “solace” and “console.”
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