| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
| |
Appendix I
Indo-European Roots |
| |
| ENTRY: | ag- |
| DEFINITION: | To drive, draw, move. Oldest form *a -, becoming *ag- in centum languages.
Derivatives include agony, ambiguous, demagogue, essay, and squat.
1. act, active, actor, actual, actuary, actuate, agendum, agent, agile, agitate; allege, ambage, ambiguous, assay, cache, coagulum, cogent, essay, exact, exacta, examine, exigent, exiguous, fumigate, fustigate, intransigent, levigate, litigate, navigate, objurgate, prodigality, redact, retroactive, squat, transact, variegate, from Latin agere, to do, act, drive, conduct, lead, weigh. 2. –agogue, agony; anagoge, antagonize, choragus, demagogue, epact, glucagon, hypnagogic, mystagogue, pedagogue, protagonist, stratagem, synagogue, from Greek agein, to drive, lead, weigh. 3. Suffixed form *ag-to-. ambassador, embassage, embassy, from Latin ambactus, servant, from Celtic *amb(i)-ag-to-, “one who goes around” (*ambi, around; see ambhi). 4. Suffixed form *ag-ti-, whence adjective *ag-ty-o-, “weighty.” axiom; axiology, chronaxie, from Greek axios, worth, worthy, of like value, weighing as much. 5. Possibly suffixed form *ag-ro-, driving, pursuing, grabbing. pellagra, podagra, from Greek agr , a seizing. 6. O-grade suffixed form *og-mo-, furrow, track, metaphorically “incised line.” ogham, from Old Irish Ogma (from Celtic *Ogmios), name of a Celtic god and traditional inventor of the ogham alphabet. (Pokorny a- 4.) See also derivative agro-. |
| |
| |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
|
|
