• enervate •
Pronunciation: en-êr-veyt • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Verb, transitive
Meaning: 1. (Medicine) To remove a nerve. 2. To deprive of vitality or energy.
Notes: Today's word lies close to a trap that catches many of us: the confusion of this Good Word with its near antonym, innervate "to inject with vitality and energy". (The problem parallels the confusion of ensure "to make sure" and insure "to guarantee value by purchasing insurance", a problem to which we will return later in our series.) The action noun for today's word is enervation and the actor noun, enervator "someone who drainss vitality or energy from an endeavor". Enervative is the adjective.
In Play: Outside the hospital, this verb may be used metaphorically to refer to many kinds of weakening: "The new offer, which included the company yacht, enervated the last bit of resistance to the sale". Both these words find many applications in business (so long as they are not confused): "The replacement of our president innervated every level of our company while enervating our competitors."
Word History: This Good Word is built on the past participle, enervatus, of the Latin verb, enervare "to weaken by removing the sinews", from e(x)- "out of' + nervus "sinew", the source of our word nerve. The same root which produced nervus turned up in Greek without the initial [s], as neuron "sinew", the source of our word neuron, a type of brain cell.
ENERVATE
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ENERVATE
Last edited by Dr. Goodword on Sun Oct 30, 2005 11:49 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Don't forget to add assure to that series.
From the mission statement of an organization with which I am waaaaaaayyyyyy too familiar:
From the mission statement of an organization with which I am waaaaaaayyyyyy too familiar:
I guess they make sure that the "health care security" has warm, fuzzy feelings.We assure health care security for beneficiaries.
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
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Re: ENERVATE
Alas, this definition fails badly, both with respect to connotation (intension) and to denotation (extension). There are at least as many cells in the brain that are not neurons as there are those that are, and as many neurons outside the brain - not least in the gut - as there are inside that organ. The essential characteristics of neurons - or nerve cells - are their capacity to carry a so-called action potential and to communicate with other cells, most often themselves neurons by means of transmittor substances emitted into the synaptic gap between the cells (cf Wikipedia's article, admittedly not one of its best, but which does cover the essentials).......
The same root which produced nervus turned up in Greek without the initial [s], as neuron "sinew", the source of our word neuron "brain cell".
Henri
曾记否,到中流击水,浪遏飞舟?
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