root

I

[[t]rut, rʊt[/t]]

n.

1) bot a part of the body of a plant that develops, typically, from the radicle and grows downward into the soil, anchoring the plant and absorbing nutriment and moisture

2) bot any underground part of a plant, as a rhizome

3) something resembling or suggesting the root of a plant in position or function

4) anat. the embedded or basal portion of a hair, tooth, nail, nerve, etc

5) the fundamental or essential part

6) the source or origin of a thing:

the root of all evil[/ex]

7) a person or family as the source of offspring or descendants

8) roots

a) a person's original or ancestral home, environment, and culture

b) the personal relationships, affinity for a place, habits, etc., that make a locale one's true home

9) math.

a) a quantity that, when multiplied by itself a certain number of times, produces a given quantity:

2 is the square root of 4, the cube root of 8, and the fourth root of 16[/ex]

b) r th root, the quantity raised to the power 1/r:

2 is the? root of 8[/ex]

c) a value of the argument of a function for which the function takes the value zero

10) gram. ling.

a) a morpheme that underlies an inflectional or derivational paradigm, as dance, the root in danced, dancer or tend-, the root of Latin tendere“to stretch.”

b) such a form reconstructed for a parent language, as *sed-, the hypothetical proto-Indo-European root meaning “sit.”

11) mad

a) the fundamental tone of a compound musical tone of a series of harmonies

b) the lowest tone of a chord when arranged as a series of thirds; fundamental

12)

a) mac (in a screw or other threaded object) the narrow inner surface between threads

b) mac (in a gear) the narrow inner surface between teeth

13) to become fixed or established

14) to fix by or as if by roots:

We were rooted to the spot in amazement[/ex]

15) to implant or establish deeply

16) agr. to pull, tear, or dig up by the roots (often fol. by up or out)

17) to extirpate; remove completely (often fol. by up or out):

to root out crime[/ex]

•

- take root

Etymology: bef. 1150; ME; late OE rōt < ON rōt, akin to OE wyrt plant, wort II II

root

[[t]rut, rʊt[/t]] v. i.

1) anb to turn up the soil with the snout, as swine

2) to poke or search:

to root around in a drawer for a cuff link[/ex]

3) anb to turn over with the snout (often fol. by up)

4) to unearth (often fol. by up)

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Etymology: 1530–40; var. of wroot (now obs.), MEwroten, OE wrōtan, c. OHGruozzen; akin to OE wrōt a snout III

root

[[t]rut[/t]] or, sometimes, [[t]rʊt[/t]] v. i.

1) to encourage a team or contestant by cheering or applauding enthusiastically

2) to lend moral support

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Etymology: 1885–90, amer.; perh. var. of rout III root′er, n.