• adduce •
Pronunciation: ê-dyus • Hear it!Part of Speech: Verb, transitive
Meaning: To cite or produce as evidence, as to adduce witnesses or adduce facts in support of an argument.
Notes: We have not decided how to spell that passive adjective from today's good noun. We are free to spell it adduceable or adducible. Both have about the same frequency in current use. The noun from this word, like reduce : reduction, is adduction, as 'the adduction of additional evidence'.
In Play: When we bring in evidence to support our arguments, we are adducing: "Crystal Ball ended her arguments by adducing citations from the scriptures that supported her position." Witnesses are adduced, too: "Mollie Spanser-Downe was at pain to adduce a single person to support her claim married men acquire intelligence from their wives."
Word History: Today's Good Word is borrowed ultimately from Latin adducere "lead to, bring to", based on ad "(up) to" + ducere "to lead". The Latin word ducere produced Italian Il Duce "The Leader", referring to the leader of the Italian Fascist Party, Benito Mussolini. It was equivalent to Adolf Hitler's title, Der Führer. The Latin verb was a legitimate child of Proto-Indo-European deuk- "to lead". All of the English words on -duce or -duct, such as deduce, produce, conduct, deduct, are borrowings from Latin words based on ducere. The PIE original provided English, a Germanic language, with the noun duke and its relatives: duchess, duchy and ducal. Another English word derived from the same source is tug, a cousin of German ziehen "to pull" and Zug "train, draught". (I could adduce a long list of Good Words to prove George Kovac a major contributor, but suffice it to extend him another warm word of thanks for today's.)
