Administers

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Operates or manages a system, organization, or process ; gives or applies something such as medicine, justice, or a test
2. Oversees and controls functioning or execution of duties ; delivers or dispenses something like treatment or rules
3. Supervises or runs operations or activities ; provides or hands out items such as remedies or legal actions

Etymology: "Administers" is the third-person singular form of "administer," so the story belongs to the verb itself. Its root is "minister," the Latin word for a servant. Latin "ministrare" meant "to attend, serve," and "administrare" added "ad," meaning "to," giving the sense of serving toward a goal or carrying out someone's business for them. The original idea was of a helper doing tasks on another's behalf, not of someone in charge. That helper's role gradually grew into managing affairs. The word passed into Middle English as "administren," coming through Old French "aminister," and the sense of directing or running things took hold, so that to administer a estate or a government became the main meaning. The medical sense is the one most readers meet every day. To administer a drug or a sacrament is, at root, to serve it out to someone, which keeps the original notion of attending to another person. The modern verb thus carries both the manager's oversight and the servant's hands-on delivery.

Synonyms: manages, oversees, directs, controls, governs

Antonyms: neglects, abandons