calmative adj.

late 14c., of the sea, "windless, without motion or agitation;" of a wind, "light, gentle," perhaps via Old French calme "tranquility, quiet," or directly from Old Italian calma "quiet, fair weather," which probably is from Late Latin cauma "heat of the mid-day sun" (in Italy, a time when everything rests and is still), from Greek kauma "heat" (especially of the sun), from kaiein "to burn" (see caustic). The spelling was influenced by Latin calere "to be hot." The figurative application to social or mental conditions, "free from agitation or passion," is from 1560s.

word-forming element meaning "of or related to; tending to," from Latin -ativus.

in medicine, "tending to calm or soothe," early 15c. (Chauliac), sedatif, from Old French sedatif and directly from Medieval Latin sedativus "calming, allaying," from sedat-, past participle stem of Latin sedare, causative of sedere "to sit" (from PIE root *sed- (1) "to sit").

The noun derivative meaning "a sedative drug" is attested by 1797, short for sedative salt, etc.; earlier it was used in a figurative or non-medical sense (1785), "whatever soothes or allays."