propitiate pro-PISH-ee-ayt, transitive verb:
To render favorably inclined; to appease; to conciliate (one offended).
ex –
Yet the Fairy Bridge… didn’t get its name for nothing. Here the locals lift a hand ever so slightly and mutter “Hello, little people,” to propitiate the fairies underneath.
–Helen Gibson, “Rewards and Fairies,” Time Europe, April 30, 2001
Propitiate derives from Latin propitius, “favorable.”
chaplet CHAP-lit noun
1. A wreath or garland worn on the head.
2. A string of beads.
[Middle English chapelet, wreath; from Old French, diminutive of chapel hat, from Medieval Latin cappellus, from Late Latin cappa, cap.]
“What was on Hannibal’s mind as he drove his elephants over the Alps?
Looking good, apparently, because on Hannibal’s head was a wig, which he wore into battle to cover his lack of locks. Julius Caesar used his chaplet for the same purpose, the comb-over having not yet been discovered.”