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“exorcise”
exercise, exercise, exorcise
exercise (EK suhr sighz") (verb)
1. To train; to work out; to keep fit: Christi attempted to go to the gymnasium daily to exercise so she would be ready to run the marathon.
2. To carry out an official function or duty: Gavin will exercise his responsibilities as vice president to the best of his ability.
2. To carry out an official function or duty: Gavin will exercise his responsibilities as vice president to the best of his ability.
exercise (EK suhr sighz") (noun)
Physical activity typically with a focus; for example, building great abs or any activity carried out with a purpose such as learning a new language: Exercise in the gym is one way to build up your body, but people need to exercise with caution and use the equipment appropriately.
exorcise (EK sor sighz" EKS or sighz") (verb)
To free or to get rid of something that is perceived as evil or difficult: Irwin joined the freedom march as a way to exorcise himself from feeling guilty about his ancestors.
The novel was about a priest who tried to exorcise demons from a young man and his sister.
As an exercise of his authority as mayor, Sandford had to arrange for a shaman to come to his town to exorcise the evil spirits that were believed to haunt the community.
This entry is located in the following unit:
Confusing Words Clarified: Group E; Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, Synonyms, Polysemes, etc. +
(page 4)
exorcise, exorcises, exorcising; exorcize
1. To expel (an evil spirit) by or as if by incantation, command, rituals, or prayer; with the intention of ridding a person or place of a supposed presence or influence of evil spirits.
2. To free from evil spirits or malign influences; such as, to clear the mind of a painful or oppressive feeling or memory.
3. Etymology: driving out (an evil spirit) by prayers, ceremonies, etc.; borrowed from Old French exorciser, from Late Latin exorcizare, from Greek exorkizein, "exorcise, to bind by oath" (ex-, "out of" + horkizein, "to cause" or "to make a person swear, to administer an oath to", from horkos, "oath"; also literally, limitation, binding).
2. To free from evil spirits or malign influences; such as, to clear the mind of a painful or oppressive feeling or memory.
3. Etymology: driving out (an evil spirit) by prayers, ceremonies, etc.; borrowed from Old French exorciser, from Late Latin exorcizare, from Greek exorkizein, "exorcise, to bind by oath" (ex-, "out of" + horkizein, "to cause" or "to make a person swear, to administer an oath to", from horkos, "oath"; also literally, limitation, binding).
As noted above, "oath" is to be found at the etymological heart of exorcise, a term going back to the Greek word exorkizein, meaning "to swear in, to take an oath by, to conjure", and "to exorcise".
The English word "exorcise" is first recorded in English possibly before the beginning of the 15th century; and in this use, exorcise means "to call up" or "to conjure spirits" rather than "to drive out spirits"; a different sense which was first recorded in 1546.
This entry is located in the following unit:
exorcis- +
(page 1)