Utile

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Dr. Goodword
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Utile

Postby Dr. Goodword » Wed Jul 06, 2022 7:55 pm

• utile •


Pronunciation: yu-têl, yu-tail • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: Useful.

Notes: Here is an adjective which has almost gone out of use itself, while the noun derived from it, utility, is commonplace. The verb from this word is utilize "to make useful" and someone who carries out this action is a utilizer. Someone who believes that usefulness is the standard for whatever is good is known as a utilitarian.

In Play: Since useful replaced utile in the English vocabulary, anywhere you may use the one word, the other may be used: "Hermione thought marrying Monty Carlo would be a utile move toward her ambition to acquire wealth." Anywhere: "I don't see how your idea that the company produce computerized walking canes could be at all utile at this point."

Word History: Today's Good Word was borrowed from French, which had inherited it from Latin utilis "useful, practical, expedient", an adjective derived from the verb uti "to use". Its past participle, usus, was also the ultimate source, via French, of use. It was common until the 16th century, when it was replaced by useful, first used by Shakespeare in "King John" (1594). We do not know how uti got into Latin; however, we do know that use replaced Old English brucan "to use, take advantage of" (([to] brook today) in the 14th century and we do know where this word came from: PIE bhrug- "fruit; enjoy, use", source also of English fruit, Latin frugi "useful, fruitful, proper" and frux, frugis "fruit", Dutch gebruiken "to use", and German brauchen "to need". The semantic connection between "fruit" and "use" could have been via the concept of "fruitfulness". (Now let's all give a grateful nod to Professor Kyu Ho Youm, Jonathan Marshall First Amendment Chair at the University of Oregon, for suggesting today's almost long-lost Good Word.)
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bbeeton
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Re: Utile

Postby bbeeton » Wed Jul 06, 2022 8:51 pm

I don't remember seeing "utile" in the wild, but I've definitely seen "inutile" at least a few times. So the model is not entirely lost.

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Slava
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Re: Utile

Postby Slava » Thu Jul 07, 2022 6:13 am

It comes up in crossword puzzles fairly regularly. I guess it's utile there.

Oh, my! I just found out that my spellcheck doesn't like utile. Utility and utilize, yes, but not utile. Fixed now.
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Debbymoge
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Re: Utile

Postby Debbymoge » Thu Jul 07, 2022 11:17 am

And "utilization"?
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Slava
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Re: Utile

Postby Slava » Thu Jul 07, 2022 1:55 pm

Utilization. Yep, it passes muster, too.
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johnwm
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Re: Utile

Postby johnwm » Fri Jul 08, 2022 4:09 pm

I've met utile occasionally as an adjective, but much more commonly as a noun describing an African hardwood with a reddish brown colour sometimes described as African mahogany. See also khaya

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Re: Utile

Postby David Myer » Sun Jul 10, 2022 4:13 am

Thanks John. Most interesting. I have learnt something again, today!

I have explored utile as a furniture timber and lovely it is too.

Dare I say that the word utile is more utile as a word for this timber than utile as a substitute word for useful?


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