A.Word.A.Day --capacitate

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Jan 8, 2024

This week’s theme
Forgotten positives

This week’s words
capacitate
eptitude
mediate
maculate
nocent

Illustration: Anu Garg + AI

Previous week’s theme
”New” words

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

We have the words inanimate/animate, unable/able, and more. So why not inane/ane? The short answer is: Just because.

The word inane (silly or senseless) comes to us from Latin inanis (empty or void). And where does Latin inanis come from? No one knows. Could it be connected with anima (soul, spirit)? We don’t have any evidence so we have to suspend judgment.

That’s how language goes.

Some words develop their matter and antimatter equivalents. In others, only one form materializes. In still other cases, both forms exist, but only one is well-known.

It’s the last category of words we focus on this week. We have dug out and brought to light the lesser-known counterparts of everyday words.

What words would you like to create counterparts for in this manner? Share on our website or email us at words@wordsmith.org. As always, include your location (city, state).

capacitate

PRONUNCIATION:

(kuh-PAS-i-tayt)

MEANING:

verb tr.: To make capable.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin capax (able to hold much), from capere (to take). Earliest documented use: 1657.

USAGE:

“‘She can’t leave the house. She’s incapacitated.’
‘Tell her to CAPACITATE then,’ he snapped.”
Katherine Clark; The Headmaster’s Darlings; 2015.

“‘Rock music was perfectly set up to capacitate everything that I was looking to express in a marketable fashion,’ says Lewis.”
Kim Mulford; Camden Pianist Eric Lewis’ Take on Music Is Classic Shock; Courier Post (Cherry Hill, New Jersey); Sep 28, 2012.

See more usage examples of capacitate in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

When you counsel someone, you should appear to be reminding him of something he had forgotten, not of the light he was unable to see. -Baltasar Gracian, writer and philosopher (8 Jan 1601-1658)

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