pamper

(păm'pər)
tr.v., -pered, -per·ing, -pers.

1. To treat with excessive indulgence: pampered their child.
2. To give in to; gratify: He pampered his ambition for wealth and fame.
3. Archaic. To indulge with rich food; glut.

[Middle English pamperen, probably of Low German origin.]

pamperer pam'per·er n.

SYNONYMS   pamper, indulge, humor, spoil, coddle, mollycoddle, baby. These verbs all mean to cater excessively to someone or to his or her desires or feelings. To pamper is to gratify appetites, tastes, or desires: "He was pampering the poor girl's lust for singularity and self-glorification" (Charles Kingsley). Indulge suggests a kindly or excessive lenience in yielding especially to wishes or impulses better left unfulfilled: "You musn't think because I indulge you in some things that you can keep everyone waiting" (Theodore Dreiser). Humor implies compliance with or accommodation to another's mood or idiosyncrasies: "Human life is . . . but like a froward child, that must be played with and humored a little to keep it quiet till it falls asleep" (William Temple). Spoil implies excessive indulgence that adversely affects the character, nature, or attitude: "He seems to be in no danger of being spoilt by good fortune" (George Gissing). Coddle and mollycoddle point to tender, overprotective care that often leads to weakening of character: "I would not coddle the child" (Samuel Johnson). Stop mollycoddling me; I'm a grown person. Baby suggests the indulgence and attention one might give to an infant: "I should like to be made much of, and tended-yes, babied" (Adeline D.T. Whitney).

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verb

To treat with indulgence and often overtender care: baby, cater, coddle, cosset, indulge, mollycoddle, overindulge, spoil. See treat well/treat badly/treat.

v

Definition: serve one's every need, whim
Antonyms: be mean, hurt, ignore, neglect, withhold

from Dutch
This word originated in Netherlands

From the point of view of English, Dutch is a 1 percent language. That is, about 1 percent of the general English vocabulary has been imported from Dutch. This is nothing like Latin and French, with about 25 percent each, but only those languages plus Greek with 5 percent and Old Norse with nearly 2 percent have pampered our language more than Dutch. And unlike most other languages, Dutch has given us many verbs. It seems appropriate, then, to let our Dutch representative be the verb pamper.

When it first appeared in English, as long ago as 1380, it had a narrower meaning, "to overfeed or stuff with rich food." At a time when food was not always abundant or even adequate in supply, overeating was the ultimate pampering. By the 1500s, it meant any kind of overindulgence, not just eating, and it had developed the kinder, gentler modern sense of complete but not necessarily too much indulgence. We now happily accept the instruction of advertisers or counselors to pamper ourselves.

Dutch is a close relative of English, a member of the West Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is spoken by the nearly sixteen million inhabitants of the Netherlands. A very similar language, Flemish, is spoken next door in Belgium by half of its population of ten million, and another very similar language, Low German, is spoken next door on the other side, in Germany, by a few million more.

A sampling of verbs that we owe to Dutch includes scour (1297), slip (1300), gulp (1380), grumble (1586), rant (1602), rumple (1603), slurp (1648), smuggle (1687), hustle (1751), and snoop (1832). Adjectives include plump (1569), slim (1657), and gruesome (1816). And the many nouns from Dutch include block (1305), bundle (1382), tub (1386), deck (1509), bully (1538), suds (1581), landscape (1598), boss (1679), cookie (1703), and snack (1402 as a snap or bite, 1757 as a quick meal).

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IN BRIEF: To treat with excessive care and attention.

The dog trainer did not pamper the canines she kept as pets.

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For a list of words related to Pampers, see:

• Infancy - Pampers: Trademark. disposable diapers of soft, absorbent paper covered with thin layer of plastic

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  See crossword solutions for the clue Pamper.

Dansk (Danish)
v. tr. - kæle for, forkæle, forvænne

Nederlands (Dutch)
overvoede(re)n, verwennen

Français (French)
v. tr. - choyer, soigner

Deutsch (German)
v. - verwöhnen, umsorgen

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - κανακεύω, παραχαϊδεύω, καλομαθαίνω

Italiano (Italian)
viziare

Português (Portuguese)
v. - mimar

Русский (Russian)
баловать

Español (Spanish)
v. tr. - mimar, consentir

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - skämma bort, övergöda

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
放纵, 使过量, 使吃饱

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
v. tr. - 放縱, 使過量, 使吃飽

한국어 (Korean)
v. tr. - 하고싶은 대로 하게 하다, 지나치게 채우다

日本語 (Japanese)
v. - 甘やかす

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) يدلل, يشبع رغبه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
v. tr. - ‮פינק יתר על המידה, פינק (אדם) בדברי-מותרות‬

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