• exude •
Pronunciation: eg-zud • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Verb, transitive
Meaning: 1. To release slowly in small quantities, to let or make ooze out. 2. To exhibit conspicuously, to express in abundance, as to exude confidence.
Notes: There are two nouns for this verb: exudence, which is rarely used, and exudation, which has led to a redundant back-formed verb, exudate, meaning the same as exude. Exudate is also a noun which, like exudence, refers to that which is exuded, as an exudence (exudate) on the leaves of a plant.
In Play: To get a sure sense of this good word, here are its basic and metaphoric meanings in one sentence: "Here comes Ivan Oder back from the Greek lunch counter, exuding garlic through the pores of his skin." In the metaphorical sense, the verb requires an abstract subject: "Jealousy exudes from Farnsworth's eyelids when he looks at Wiley Driver's new MG RV8 sports car."
Word History: Today's word comes from perhaps the most common type of exudence, sweat, found in Latin exsudare: ex- "out (of)" + sudare "to sweat". The root of this verb is a descendant of the Proto-Indo-European root, *sweid- "sweat", which also went on to become English sweat and German Schweiß. Our scientific term for sweating, hidrosis, comes from the Greek variant, hidros "sweat", which suggests a connection with hydor "water", underlying hydrant, hydrofoil, and hydroponics.
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