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“contrivance”
1. A cleverly made device or machine or contraption to fulfill a special need: Jim’s dad created a contrivance to heat the inside of the sleeping bag while camping during the cold night by using a hot rock that had been put in the campfire and then taken out and wrapped up with newspapers.
2. Something or an idea created in a clever way to accomplish an objective: The manager of the store thought up a contrivance to encourage customers to buy the store's tea products, like serving hot tea to the customers on cold winter days.
3. Etymology: from Middle English contreven, from Old French controver, contreuv-, from Medieval Latin contropare, "to compare"; from Latin con-, "together, with" + Latin tropus, "turn, manner, style"; from Greek tropos, "turn, manner, mode, style".
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2. Something or an idea created in a clever way to accomplish an objective: The manager of the store thought up a contrivance to encourage customers to buy the store's tea products, like serving hot tea to the customers on cold winter days.
3. Etymology: from Middle English contreven, from Old French controver, contreuv-, from Medieval Latin contropare, "to compare"; from Latin con-, "together, with" + Latin tropus, "turn, manner, style"; from Greek tropos, "turn, manner, mode, style".
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This entry is located in the following units:
-ance, -ancy
(page 4)
com-, co-, cog-, col-, con-, cor-
(page 6)
tropo-, trop-, -tropal, -trope(s), -tropic, -tropism, -tropia, -tropous, -tropy, trep-
(page 2)
(Greek makhana, machana > Latin machina: machine, device, tool; an apparatus for applying mechanical power to do work; mekhanikos > machynen, decide a course of action, contrive, plot contrivance; a machine or the workings of machines)