Averruncate

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To turn away or prevent a threat by uprooting or cutting off its source ; to clear away something harmful by cutting it off completely
2. Ward off an evil or misfortune by removing its cause ; sever and pull out something undesirable at the root
3. To avert a danger or misfortune by cutting away what causes it ; to eradicate something unwanted by severing it from its roots

Etymology: Averruncate is a Latin-derived verb that looks like it should mean "to root out," and that is almost exactly what it came to mean, though its Latin ancestor had a different sense. The Roman verb "averruncare" was built from "ab" ("off") and "verruncare" ("to turn"), and its job was to turn away evil. Ancient religious usage asked gods to avert harm, so the word belonged to the vocabulary of prayer rather than of the garden. Somewhere along the way, the second half of the word was reinterpreted as "eruncare," meaning "to weed out," and the spelling changed to match. The new spelling suited the new idea, so the sense of averting danger gradually gave way to the sense of pulling something up by the roots. English writers picked up the word in that weeding sense, and it is now a rare, learned term for removing or clearing away something unwanted.

Synonyms: avert, eradicate