CONSOLATION (Fr. consolation,

See also:

• LAT

Lat. consolatio, from consolari, to assuage, comfort,

See also:

• CONSOLE (a French form, supposed to be an abbreviation of consolide, from Lat. consolidare, to strengthen)

console)  , in general, the soothing of disappointment or grief . The word is applied equally to the action of consoling, to the state of being consoled, and to the instruments by which comfort is brought . Thus we speak of a person making attempts at consolation, of receiving consolation, and e.g. of the consolations of religion . In the sense of compensation for loss, the word " consolation " has had a variety of adaptations . Of its use in ecclesiastical Latin, in this sense, Du Cange gives various instances . Thus the synod of Angers (453) decreed that those clerics " qui sunt caelibes, nonnisi a sororibus aut amatis aut matribus consolentur "; consolatio was also the name given,e.g., to the evening meal given to monks after the regular collation " by way of consolation " and to certain payments made to members of chapters over and above the revenues of their benefices . In an analogous sense we use the word in such combinations as " consolation prize," " consolation race," " consolation stakes," meaning such as are open only to competitors who have not won in any preceding " event." Consolation is also the name of a French gambling game, so called because it is usually played on and about race-courses after the races have been run and the players have presumably lost . The necessary implements are a board divided into sections numbered from r to 6, upon which the players place their stakes, and a die which is shaken in a box and thrown onthe board . The banker, usually a professional gambler, pays five times the money on the winning number and pockets the rest . His chances of winning are overwhelming, as the die is never thrown until a stake has been placed upon all six compartments .