• efferent •
Pronunciation: ef-ê-rênt • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Directed away from, carrying outwards; discharging, especially motor nerve impulses conducted away from the brain to an effector (muscle, organ, gland).
Notes: This word is the antonym of afferent "directed toward", especially toward the brain, as do the sensory neurons producing feeling. The adjective for this word is efferential. Efference refers to that part of the nervous system where signals move away from the central nervous system.
In Play: Efferent is used mostly in medicine, referring to the neural and vascular systems: "Efferent electrochemical waves course along motor nerves to the six muscles by which each eye is moved." But use of this word is not limited to medicine: "Some clams have an efferent siphon that they use to move about the sea floor."
Word History: Today's Good Word was borrowed from French efférent that French made from Latin efferen(t)s, the present active participle of efferre "to carry away from". The Latin verb consists of ex "(away) from, out of" + ferre "to carry. Latin made its verb from PIE bher-/bhor- "to carry, to bear", found also beneath Sanskrit bharati "carries, brings", Greek pherein "to carry", Persian (Farsi) bar "burden, load, duty", Irish beir "give birth, bring, take", Russian brat' "to take", bremya "burden", beremennaya "pregnant", Dutch baren "to bear, give birth", German gebären "to bear, give birth", and English bear, birth, and burden.
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