Encouragement (3931) (paregoria from parÄ"goréō = to speak with, to exhort, to console <> from para = beside + agora = assembly <> from ageirein = to gather) refers to consolation, comfort, solace. This is the only NT use. Paregoria uses more than just words in contrast to a similar verb, paramuthia (para = near + muthéomai = to speak, consolation) which means to speak kindly, soothingly and so to comfort or pacify. There is a medicine called Paregoric which is given to infants as a sedative (In old English usage "paregoric" was an adjective meaning mitigating, assuaging pain, soothing). It tends to soothe and quiet them. The manufacturers certainly chose the right Greek word to describe the medicinal effects of their product. How precious to think that while Paul was in prison, deprived of his liberty to preach, his fellow-workers by their activities in preaching the gospel, were a soothing, quieting influence to him. In that sense they were a comfort to him. The noun form means “comfort, solace, relief, alleviation, consolation.” We Christians, filled with the Holy Spirit, can be all that to our sorely-tried fellow-saints. The word is found in a pagan letter of consolation on the occasion of a death.