Unit 2

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AG comes from the Latin word for "do, go, lead, drive." An agenda is a list of things to be done. An agent is usually someone who does things on behalf of another, just as an agency is an office that does business for others.
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agitate: (1) To move something with an irregular, rapid, violent action. (2) To stir up or excite. 
* Philip found Louisa highly agitated at the new of her son's disappearance.
Agitate can mean to shake or stir something physically, but more often its meaning is emotional or political. Agitation for a cause--a new union, civil rights, a change of government--involves talking it up, passing out information, and holding meetings, though sometimes as secretly as possible. An agitated person or animal usually feels severely anxious and upset, not pleasantly excited.

litigate: To carry on a lawsuit by judicial process.
* If the company chooses to litigate, it may give the protesters the chance to make their points even more effectively in the courts and newspapers.
Litigation has become almost a way of in America, where there are many more lawyers than in any other country on earth. In this increasingly litigious society, the courts have been overwhelmed with petty disputes. Television has responded to the trend by producing heroes like Judge Wapner of People's Court, a man who can show litigants the absurdity of their case while rendering a just verdict. (The Latin litigare includes the root lit, "lawsuit," and thus means basically "to drive a lawsuit.")

prodigal: Recklessly or wastefully extravagant; spendthrift.
* Rodney had been the most prodigal with his expected inheritance and had the most to gain from a dedistribution of the estate.
The Latin prodigere means "to squander"--that is, to "drive away" money and goods. In the biblical story of the prodigal son, the father welcomes home the spendthrift and now-penniless young man, despite his prodigality, just as the Church stands ready to welcome back the repenting sinner. Prodigal can apply to more than money. Farmers may make prodigal use of their soil, or may give their animals prodigal amounts of antibiotics. Rich countries are almost always prodigal with their resources. In a bloody and pointless war, lives are lost on a prodigal scale.

synagogue: The center of worship and communal life of a Jewish congregation; temple.
* Though the neighborhood was now dangerous at night, the older members refused to move and abandon the beloved synagogue they had attended since the 1940s.
Synagogue begins with the prefix syn-, "together," so the word refers basically to "coming together." Synagogues have existed for more than 2,500 years. The oldest synagogue in America, dating from 1763, was built in Rhode Island, the most religiously tolerant of the original thirteen colonies.
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VEN/VENT comes from venire, the Latin verb meaning "come." To intervene in a case or an argument is to "come between" the two opponents. An avenue is a street, or orignigally an access road by which to "come toward" something. Groups "come together" at a convention.
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advent: A coming or arrival; a coming into use.
* The advent of spring was always marked by the blue crocuses pushing up through the snow.
Advent includes the prefix ad-, "to or toward," and thus means basically a "coming toward." The Advent season in the Christian religion consists of the weeks leading up to Christmas, when the coming of Christ is anticipated. The advent of mass printing with Gutenberg's printing press in the mid-15th century had an enormous effect on European society and politics; the advent of the computer in the mid-20th century has promised to change ours even more profoundly.

provenance: Origin or source.
* The wedding guests wondered about the provenance of this mysterious woman, about whom Seth had never breathed a word.
Provenance refers to any source or origin in general, but is used particularly to refer to the history of ownership of a piece of art, which may be necessary to prove that a work is authentic. The provenance of Rubens's paintings is varied; some have been in a single family or in a single museum for centuries, while some have been lost without a trace, leaving their provenance a mystery. Tracing the provenance of an idea or invention such as television may be a complicated task.

venturesome: Inclined to seek out risk or danger; bold, daring, adventurous.
* Kate, with her bungee jumping, free-failing, and rock climbing, had always been the most venturesome of the four.
America, perhaps with a touch of arrogance, likes to think of itself as a land of venturesome people who push fearlessly forward in all ages and in all fields, and it clearly took a venturesome spirit to mount the successful flight to the moon that ended in July 1969. In past centuries, however, the mose venturesome explorers were to be found in Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Britain--that is, the rich countries on the sea or ocean.

venue:(1) The place where a trial is held. (2) The locale of an event.
* To Dr. Slaughter the important thing was to get a change of venue; hoping to conceal his past, he wanted a judge who knew him neither by sight nor by reputation.
The importance of venue in jury makeup and the subsequent outcome of a trial was vividly shown in the famous Roney King case. A suburban jury acquitted the men accused of beating King; after a change of venue, an urban jury convicted two of the men. The venues of championship boxing matches, on the other hand, are chose with maximum profits in mind.
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CAP/CEP/CIP comes from capere, the Latin verb meaning "take, seize." Capture, which is what a captor does to a captive, has the same meaning. Captivate once meant literally "capture," but now means only to capture mentally through charm or appeal. In some other English words this root produces, its meaning is harder to find.
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reception: (1) The act of receiving. (2) A social gathering where guests are formally welcomed.
* Although the reception of her plan was enthusiastic, it was months before anything was done about it.
Reception is the noun form of reveive. So at a formal reception guests are received or welcomed or "taken in." If your idea for a great practical joke gets a lukewarm reception, it has not been well-received or accepted. Bad TV receprion means the signal isn't being received well. And when a new novel receives good reviews we say it has met with a good critical reception.

incipient: Starting to come into being or to become evident.
* He felt the strirrings of incipient panic as he riffled through the file and realized that the letter had been removed.
* An incipient career as an actor in New York tends to involve a lot of waiting on tables while waiting for auditions. Identifying a cancer at its incipient stage may allow its development to be slowed or reversed. An environmental pessimist may speak of the incipient extinction of whales or bald eagles.

perceptible: Noticeable or able to be felt by the senses.
* Her change in attitude toward him was barely perceptible, and he couldn't be sure that he wasn't imaging it.
Perceptible includes the prefix per-, meaning "through," so the word refers to whatever can be taken in through the senses. A perceptive person picks up hints and shades of meaning that others can't perceive. Such people rely on their sharp perceptions, their observations of whatever kind. So very often what is perceptible to one person--a tiny sound, a slight change in the weather, a different tone of voice--will not be to another.

susceptible: (1) Open to some influence; responsive. (2) Able to be submitted to an action or process.
* Impressed with her intelligence and self-confidence, he was highly susceptible to her influnence.
With its prefix sus, "up," susceptible refers to what "takes up" or absorbd like a sponge. When negotiating the settlement of World War II at Yalta with Churchill and Roosevelt, Stalin may have found the other two susceptible to his threats and bullying and thus managed to hold on to much of Eastern Europe. Students are usually susceptible to the teaching of a strong and imaginative professor. In a similar way, a sickly child will be susceptible to colds, and an unlucky adult will be susceptible to back problems.
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FIN comes from the Latin word for "end" or "boundary." Final describes last things, and a finale or a finish is an ending. But its meaning is harder to trace in some of the other English words derived from it.
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affinity:(1) Sympathy; attraction. (2) Relationship.
* He knew of Carl's affinity to both wine and violence, and intended to take advantage of them.
Affinity gives a sense of things touching along their boundaries and therefore being of interest to each other. Felix Mendelssohn showed an affinity for music at a very early age and composed several fully developed symphonies while still in his teens; Stevie Wonder revealed his own musical affinity long before he made his debut at the age of 10. A strong affinity for another person may deepen into love. A critic may notice affinities between the works of two writers. A natuaralist may speak of the affinity between two bird species--that is, their close physical relation to each other.

definitive: (1) Authoritative and final. (2) Specifying perfectly or precisely.
* The team's brilliant research provided a definitive description of the virus and its strange mutation patterns.
 Something definitive is complete and final. A definitive example is the perfect example.  A definitive biography contains everything we'll ever need to know about someone. Ella Fitzgerald's 1950s recordings of American popular songs have even been called definitive, though no one has ever wanted them to be the last.

infinitesimal: Extremely or immeasurably small.
* Looking more closely at the research data, he now saw an odd pattern of changes so infinitesimal that they hadn't been noticed before.
Infinitesimal includes the negative prefix in- "not"; the resulting word describes something endlessly small. When Antonie van Leeuwenhoek invented the microscope in the 17th century, he was able to see organisms that had been thought too infinitesimally small to exist. But today's electron microscope allows us to see infinitesimal aspects of matter even he could not have imagined.

finite: Having definite limits.
* Her ambitions were infinite, but her wealth was finite.
It came as a shock to America in the early 1970s to realize that world and national resources were finite rather than unlimited. The debate continued as to whether the universe is finite or infinite and, if it is finite, how to think about what lies beyond it. Religion has always concerned itself with the question of the finite (that is, human life on earth) versus the infinite (God, eternity, and infinity). But finite is mostly used in scientific writing, often with the meaning "definitely measurable."
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 JAC/JEC comes from jacere, the Latin verb meaning "throw" or "hurl." To reject something is to throw (or push) it back. To eject something is to throw (or drive) it out. To object is to throw something in the way of something else.
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adjacent: (1) Near, neighboring. (2) Sharing a common boundary or border.
* The warehouse was adjacent to the junction of the two raging rivers, so the body could have been quickly disposed of.
Adjacent contains the prefix ad-, "near or toward," so what is adjacent lies near its neighbor. In the former Yugoslavia, the Serbs adjacent lies near its neighbor. In the former Yugoslavia, the Serbs and Croats have seized adjacent land from the Bosnians. Anyone buying a house is naturally curious about who lives on the adjacent lots. In geometry we speak of adjacent sides and angles. Though in each of these cases adjacent means "touching," it may also mean simply "neighboring" or "nearby."

conjecture: To guess.
* They could conjecture that he had met his end in the Andes at the hands of the guerrillas.
Formed with prefix con-, conjecture means literally "to throw together"--that is, to produce a theory by putting together a number of facts. From his calculations, Columbus conjectured that he would reach Asia if he sailed westward. His later conjecture of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific over the North American continent was eventually proved correct, but only after hundreds of years had passed.

dejected: Downcast, depressed.
* Despite the glorious weather, they walked home from the hospital dejected.
 Dejected, which includes the prefix de-, meaning "down," literally means "thrown down" or "cast down." It usually refers to a temporary state of mind--for example, the mood of a losing football team or a rejected lover--rather than ongoing depression.

trajectory: The curved path that an object makes in space, or that a thrown object follows as it rises and falls to earth.
* Considering the likely range, trajectory, and accuracy of a bullet fired from a cheap handgun at 150 yards, the murder seemed incredible.
Formed with part of the prefix trans-, "acorss," trajectory means a "hurling across." By calculating the effect of gravitational and other forces, the trajectory of an object lauched into space at a known speed can be computed precisely. Missiles stand a chance of hitting their target only if their trajectory has been plotted accurately. Though the word is most used in physics and engineering, we can also say, for example, that the trajectory of a whole life may be set in a person's youth, or that a historian has described the long trajectory of the French empire in a new book.
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TRACT comes from trahere, the Latin verb meaning "drag or draw." Something attractive draws us toward it. A tractor drags other vehicles behind it, with the help of the traction of its wheels.
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detract: To decrease the importance, value, or effictiveness of something.
* None of the gossip in the new biography detracts in the least from her greatness as a writer.
With the prefix de-, meaning "away," detract means "draw away from." A fact that doesn't match up with the rest of the prosecution's case detracts from it. Richard Nixon's involvement in the Watergate coverup was felt to detract so seriously from his ability to carry out his presidential duties that he had to resign, especially after his detractors had impeached him. (Don't confuse detract with distract, which means "take attention away from.")

protracted: Drawn out, continued, or extended.
* No one was looking forward to a protracted struggle for custody of the baby.
Protracted usually applies to something drawn out in time. A protracted strike may cripple a company; a protracted rainy spell may rot the roots of vegetables. Before Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin discovered vaccines to prevent polio, the many victims of the disease had no choice but to suffer a protracted illness and its permanent aftereffects.

retraction: A taking back or withdrawal; a denial of what one has previously said.
* The following week, the newspaper reluctantly printed a retraction of the errors in the article, but the damage had been done.
The prefix re- ("back") gives retraction the meaning of "drawing back." Someone who has been wrongly accused may demand a retraction from his accuser--though today it seems more likely that he'll just go ahead and sue. Thousands of citizens were forced to publicly retract their "wrong" ideas by the Soviet government in the 1930s and the Chinese government in the 1960s. Retractions tend to be rather formal and rarely private.

intractable: Not easily handled, led, taught, or controlled.
* The army's corruption was known to be the country's intractable problem, and all foreign aid ended up in the colonels' pockets.
Intractable simply means "untreatable," and even comes from the same root. It may describe both people and conditions. An intractable alcoholic goes back to the bottle immediately after "drying out." A cancer patient may suffer intactable pain that doctors are unable to treat. Homelessness is now regarded by many as an intractable problem--though it hardly existed twenty years ago.
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DUC, from the Latin verb ducere,  "to lead," shows up constantly in English. Duke means basically "leader." The Italian dictator Mussolini was known simply as "II Duce." But such words as produce and reduce also contain the root, even though their meanings show it less clearly.
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conducive: Tending to promote, encouragem or assist; helpful.
* She found the atmosphere there conducive to study and even to creative thinking.
Something conducive "leads to" a desirable result. A cozy living room may be conducive to relaxed conversation, just as a board room may be conducive to savings and investment, whereas others are conducive to consumer spending. Notice that conducive is almost always followed by to.

deduction: (1) Subtraction. (2) The reaching of a conclusion by reasoning.
* Foretelling the future by deduction based on a political or economic theory has proved to be extremely difficult.
A tax deduction is a substraction from your gross income allowed by the government for certain expenses, which will result in your paying lower taxes. To deduct is simply to substract. But deduction also means "reasoning," and particularly reasoning based on general principles to produce specific findings. Mathematical reasoning is almost always deduction, for instance, since it is based on general rules. But when Dr. Watson exclaims "Brilliant deduction, my dear Holmes!" he simply means "briliant reasoning," since Sherlock Holmes's solutions are based on specific details he has noticed rather than on general principles.

induce: (1) Persuade, influence. (2) Bring about.
* To induce him to make the call we had to promise we wouldn't do it again.
Inducing often refers to gentle persuation--inducing a friend to go to a concert, or inducing a child to stop crying, for instance. But an inducement may occasionally be a bit menacing, such as the Godfather's "Make him an offer he can't refuse." Induce also sometimes means "produce"; thus, doctors must at times induce labor in a pregnant woman. Induction often means the opposite of deduction, and is in fact closer to what Sherlock Holmes was actually doing.

seduction: (1) Temptation to wrong, especially temptation to sexual intercourse. (2) Attraction or charm.
* The company began its campaign of seduction of the smaller firm by inviting its top management to a series of weekends at expensive resorts. 
Seduction, with its prefix se-, "aside," means basically "led aside or astray." In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne has to wear a scarlet A, for "adulteress," for all to see after it is revealed that she has been seduced by the Reverend Dimmesdale. Seduction also takes less physical forms. Advertisements constantly try to seduce us (often using sex as a temptation) into buying products we hadn't even known existed.
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SEC/SEQU comes from the Latin verb sequi, meaning " to follow." A sequel follows the original novel, film, or television show. The second follows the first. But a non sequitur is a conclusion that does "not follow" from what was said before.
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consequential: (1) Resulting. (2) Important. 
* None of our discussions thus far has been very consequential; next week's meeting will be the important one.
Something that is consequential follows or comes along with something else. The "resulting"meaning of consequential is usually seen in legal writing. For example, "consequential losses" are losses that are claimed to have resulted from some improper behavior, about which the lawyer's client is suing. But normally consequential means "significant" or "important," and is especially used for events that will produce large consequences or results.

execute:(1) To carry out or perform. (2) To put to death legally or formally.
* He was aware that he hadn't been hired to think independently but rather simply to execute the governor's policies.
Execute joins ex-, "out," and sec to produce the meaning "follow through" or "carry out." An artist executes (or produces) a painting or sculpture only after having planned it first. A policy or regulation must have been prepared before it can be executed( or put into practice). And a person may be executed (or put to death) by the state only after a death sentence has been issued.

obsequious: Excessively submissive, obedient, or flattering.
* Since he loves flattery, he surrounds himself with obsequious people, none of whom he ever really trusts.
A man may be obsequious toward his overbearing wife, or vice versa. Obsequious assistants are often called "yes-mean" or "toadies" or even less complimentary things behind their backs. (Uriah Heep, inDavid Copperfiled, is probably the most famous example in literature.) Obsequiousness has never been admired, but it has often adopted as good strategy.

sequential: (1) Aggranged in order or in a series. (2) Following in a series.
* In writing the history of the revolution, he found it hard to put some of the events in sequential order.
Things in sequence, or regular order, are arranged sequentlly. Most novels and films move sequentially, but some use techniques such as flashbacks that interrupt the movement forward in time. Sequential courses in college must be taken in the proper order, just as sequential tasks or steps must be done in order.
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