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word of the day

The word for today is…

predicate (noun, verb, adjective):

A seemingly simple little word today, but a lot lurks within.

noun:

1a : something that is affirmed or denied of the subject in a proposition in logic
b : a term designating a property or relation
2 :grammar : the part of a sentence that expresses what is said about the subject In the sentence “The child threw the ball,” the subject is “the child” and the predicate is “threw the ball.”

verb:

1a: affirm, declare
b archaic : preach
2a : to assert to be a quality, attribute, or property —used with following of predicates intelligence of humans
b : to make (a term) the predicate in a proposition
3 : found, base —usually used with on the theory is predicated on recent findings
4 : imply

adjective:

completing the meaning of a copula – which is the connecting link between subject and predicate of a proposition

Source : Merriam -Webster

Etymology : The verb predicate means, among other things, “to found or base.” Despite being attested as early as 1754, that sense has endured attack as a misuse on the grounds that it is not true to its Latin root praedicare, meaning “to proclaim, assert.” This criticism, however, has subsided. Predicate can also mean “imply,” but be careful about using it to mean “predict”-that use does appear in published sources sometimes, but it’s an easy target for usage commentators, who are bound to consider it an all-too-predictable error. The meaning of predicate directly tapped from its Latin root-that is, “to assert”-most often occurs in metaphysic contemplation. A simplistic example of such use is the statement “if y is said to be x (e.g., an apple is a fruit), everything that is predicated of y is predicated of x.”

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