averruncate, v. ? Obs.
(ævəˈrʌŋkeɪt)
[f. L. āverruncāt- ppl. stem of āverruncāre to ward off, avert, remove (evils, ill-luck, etc.), f. ā, ab off + verruncāre to turn. Erroneously explained in 17th c. from ab off + ēruncāre to weed out, whence sense 2.
This mistake began in mod.L. or Fr.: Cotgrave (1611) has ‘averronquer, to purge, or weed; to turne, put, or take away euill; to divert mischiefes; also to appease’; where the perverted sense is put first. Bailey (1731) essayed to accommodate the spelling to the new sense, by entering the fictitious variant aberuncate, adopted from him by Johnson, and later dictionaries. No such compound as ab-ē-runcāre is warranted by Latin analogies.]
1. prop. To avert, ward off.
| 1663 Butler Hud. i. i. 758 Sure some Mischief will come of it, Unless by Providential Wit, Or Force, we averruncate it. [ed. 1694 has the erroneous Annotation: ‘Averruncate..though it appear ever so Learned..means nothing else but the Weeding of Corn.’ (Cf. 1693, sense 2.)] |
2. improperly. (See quotations.)
| 1623 Cockeram, Aueruncate, to take away that which hurts, to weed. 1693 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. 183 Averruncate; to weed..to cut or take away that which hurteth; to weed ground, to prune or dress vines, etc. Hence to avert or take away; to appease or attone. 1731 Bailey, Aberuncated, pulled up by the roots, weeded. 1755 Johnson, Averruncate, to root up; to tear up by the roots. Aberuncate [averunco Lat.], to pull up by the roots; to extirpate utterly. [Subseq. Dicts. have Aberuncate (or Aberruncate), and Averruncate.] |