attenuate (2009-06-05)

Part of Speech: verb

Pronunciation: [ê-'ten-yu-weyt]

Definition: To make thinner—narrower, rarer, or weaker; to reduce in strength, force, effect; to weaken.

Usage: The basic meaning of today's word is to make thinner in girth, "The month of wandering the desert had noticeably attenuated Fatima." This applies to both senses of the word "thin," as we see here: "Finding the kumquat smoothie a bit too thick for her taste, Portia attenuated it with a half cup of gin." The other meaning is to reduce the power or intensity of something, "Boomer, would you mind attenuating the music until I am off the telephone?"

Suggested Usage: This verb has fathered a healthy family of related words. The noun is "attenuation" and something that attenuates is an attenuator. There are two adjectives: attenuative means "tending to attenuate" while "attenuate" [ê-'ten-yu-êt] means "thin or having been made thin."

Etymology: Latin attenuare, attenuat-: ad- "to" + tenuare "to make thin" (from tenuis "thin"). The root *ten- with the suffix -d shows up in many words borrowed from Latin, including tender "to offer," "tendon" (Greek "tenon" from teinein "to stretch"). Greek has a partially reduplicated form with the root repeated: tetanos "rigid" which gave us "tetanus" via Latin. In Latin, the root turns up in tenere "to hold" and from there found its way into tenant "lease holder" and tenor "course or drift of a discourse." As you can see in the pairs Latin pater : English father, Latin mater : English mother, the PIE [t] became [th] in English so we get the expected "thin" from the same root in English.