entry
act
/ækt/Something done; a deed or performance
From Latin ag (to drive).
from Latin actus "a doing; a driving, impulse, a setting in motion; a part in a play," and actum "a thing done"...
from Latin actus "a doing; a driving, impulse, a setting in motion; a part in a play," and actum "a thing done"...
Word Ancestry
from Latin actus "a doing; a driving, impulse, a setting in motion; a part in a play," and actum "a thing done"...
from Latin actus "a doing; a driving, impulse, a setting in motion; a part in a play," and actum "a thing done"...
A Roman might use agere for all sorts of motion: driving cattle, pushing a case in court, even performing onstage. That slippery little verb spawned actus, which could mean a deed, a legal action, or the turning of a play into visible motion. English borrowed the noun in the late 1300s, and suddenly a single word could cover both a parliament's statute and a hammy stage performance. Its cousins are everywhere: agent is the one who acts, action is the doing itself, and exact is what happens when something is driven all the way out, right to the finish. By the time people were saying get your act together in the 1970s, the old Latin idea was still there: stop drifting, start moving, make the deed match the plan.
The Story
A Roman might use agere for all sorts of motion: driving cattle, pushing a case in court, even performing onstage. That slippery little verb spawned actus, which could mean a deed, a legal action, or the turning of a play into visible motion. English borrowed the noun in the late 1300s, and suddenly a single word could cover both a parliament's statute and a hammy stage performance. Its cousins are everywhere: agent is the one who acts, action is the doing itself, and exact is what happens when something is driven all the way out, right to the finish. By the time people were saying get your act together in the 1970s, the old Latin idea was still there: stop drifting, start moving, make the deed match the plan.
Modern Usage
Short for Actavis, especially codeine-promethazine cough syrup; also used for a fake or performed display of emotion or behavior.
Popularized by: Urban Dictionary usage and hip-hop/drug-culture slang
Notable References
- Future references to 'Act'
- Urban Dictionary entry for Actavis
Kin & Kindred
From 'ag'·to drive, set in motion, do
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Etymonline
Free Dictionary
Urban Dictionary
Wiktionary