palliative (adj.)

early 15c., palliatif, "serving to mitigate or alleviate" (a wound, disease, etc.); also "serving to cover, concealing;" from Medieval Latin palliativus "under cloak, covert," from Late Latin palliatus, literally "cloaked," from past participle of Late Latin palliare "cover with a cloak, conceal," from Latin pallium "a cloak" (see pall (n.)). Meaning "serving to extenuate by excuses or favorable representation" is by 1779. As a noun, "that which mitigates or extenuates," by 1724.