ARROGATE

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Dr. Goodword
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ARROGATE

Postby Dr. Goodword » Tue Oct 03, 2006 10:41 pm

• arrogate •

Pronunciation: æ-rê-gayt • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, transitive.

Meaning: 1. To lay claim to something to which you have no right; to appropriate inappropriately. 2. To claim something for someone else to which you have no right or legitimate claim.

Notes: We often use the adjective arrogant without thinking of its origins. It is easy, however, to see how arrogating is a form of arrogance, for you can arrogate importance as well as the property of others. Because arrogance has shifted its meaning, today's verb has created another adjective for itself, arrogative, as someone with arrogative tendencies. The noun is arrogation.

In Play: In its most direct sense, today's word refers to the action of laying claim to anything that isn't yours: "Ford Rader seems to have simply arrogated himself his father's car after driving it for two years." But this word is always convenient around aggressive people who like to take control: "When did you arrogate the power and wisdom to organize our trip to the beach?"

Word History: Today's Good Word is built on the past participle, arrogatus of the Latin verb arrogare "to arrogate", itself made up of ad "to + rogare "to ask". The ultimate source of the root in rogare, rog-, is the Proto-Indo-European root rog-/reg- "move in a straight line" with the Shifty O that is sometimes E. The O-form appears in many Latin words we borrowed: abrogate, interrogate, prerogative and English directly inherited the root as rake. The E-form turns up in words referring to measuring sticks, such as ruler which goes back to Latin regula "a straight stick". The other type of ruler should also be straight, so the word for "king" was also associated with this root; it turns up in Hindi raja and Latin rex (reg-s). The Latin word became roi "king" in French, the adjective of which, royal, we also pilfered. In English the E-form, reg-, turned out to be rich. Quite a derivational trip, don't you think?
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Palewriter
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Postby Palewriter » Tue Oct 03, 2006 11:02 pm

Also, this word is rather similar in sound to "aggregate", which can be useful when explaining the difference between cement (SEA-mint) and concrete in another, not-too-distant thread.

:-)



-- PW
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!!! What a ride!"


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