commute (2009-06-20)

Part of Speech: verb

Pronunciation: [kê-'myut]

Definition: (1) This verb originally meant "to exchange," e.g. to commute currency from pounds to francs. In particular, it meant to exchange for a reduction, as "commute the price of several tickets for a lower single fare" or "commute a life sentence to house arrest in the home of your mother-in-law." (2) To travel back and forth between home and work over a long distance (1889, Century Dictionary, though not in 1913 Webster's).

Usage: Kids, this is a cool term to impress your parents with, "Mom, would you commute my yard chores this weekend to taking the car to the carwash tonight?" There are household uses of the second meaning, too: "Buffy, as you commute between your room and the refrigerator, could you bring down your dirty clothes and take the clean ones back?"

Suggested Usage: (1) In this sense the word is used mostly in courts today in reference to reducing sentences. But in 1856 a commutation ticket was a reduced fare for people who rode the train over the same route repeatedly, a kind of season rail pass. (2) A person who commutes in this sense is a commuter and the activity is commuting. One round trip would be "a commute." This sense of the word is apparently related to "commutation ticket" and "commutation trains."

Etymology: Latin commutare "to change, exchange" from con "with" + mutare "change." The same root turns up in Latin mutuus "in exchange" on which "mutual" is based. English "mad" shares the same origin via Germanic ga-maid-yan "changed" underlying Old English *gemædan "made foolish or insane."