COMMUTE

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Dr. Goodword
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COMMUTE

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sat Jul 28, 2007 11:35 pm

• commute •

Pronunciation: kê-myutHear it!

Part of Speech: Verb

Meaning: 1. (Intransitive) To go back and forth over a long distance, as to commute to work from a neighboring town. 2. (Transitive) To change, exchange or substitute for something lesser or more agreeable, as to commute a criminal sentence to time already served in jail. 3. (Electrical engineering) To regulate the direction of an electrical current.

Notes: The three definitions (among several more obscure ones) of today's interesting verb are served by two different nouns. A commutator is person who exchanges something or the part of an electrical motor that controls the direction of the current. A commuter is someone who travels back and forth over a long distance. The activity of the judge and commutator is commutation while that of the commuter is commuting.

In Play: Judges substitute a lighter sentence for a rougher one when they commute: "The judge commuted Kenny Bunkport's sentence of three months of marriage counseling with his wife to 90 days in jail." Yuppies are more likely to travel long distances: "Commuting 5 miles to work would not have been so difficult had Stoddard owned a car." Here is a sentence that illustrates both the basic senses of today's Good Word: "I wish I could fund a job that would commute my sentence of commuting 30 miles to work every day to a shorter drive."

Word History: In Middle English today's Good Word was commuten "to transform", borrowed from Latin commutare "to transform", based on con "with, together" + mutare "to change", also the source of English mutate. The underlying Proto-Indo-European root of Latin mutare devolved into Old English gemædde "crazy, insane" which came down to us as mad, referring to a changed mental state. In Greek we find the root in amoebe "change" which we borrowed to refer to the most changeable of organisms, the amoeba. (We hope Margie Sved never changes and continues to send us suggestions for marvelous Good Words like today's.)
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skinem
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Postby skinem » Sun Jul 29, 2007 3:34 pm

With today's US average commute becoming longer and longer, this is becoming one of the "dirty words" we've been talking about! :D (I'm so glad that two years ago I traded a 45-60 minute commute to one of maybe 10 minutes!)

To some, it's lately become a dirty word in politics as well...
Last edited by skinem on Tue Jul 31, 2007 1:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

engineer27
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Postby engineer27 » Mon Jul 30, 2007 5:01 pm

At least it is not considered a dirty word in Mathematics, a field in which students still regularly refer to the Commutative Property of addition and multiplication.

In this context, the verb is generally used in its intransitive form (the addends in an equation commute).

Perry
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Postby Perry » Wed Aug 01, 2007 11:46 am

With today's US average commute becoming longer and longer, this is becoming one of the "dirty words" we've been talking about! :D (I'm so glad that two years ago I traded a 45-60 minute commute to one of maybe 10 minutes!)

To some, it's lately become a dirty word in politics as well...
If you work from home, you can commute the commute.
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
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