-tion

(Latin: a suffix forming nouns from verbs of condition and action; an act or process: resumption, absorption; state or condition, redemption, exhaustion; something resulting from or otherwise related to an act or process, assumption, friction)

This unit is presenting a small fraction of the hundreds of words ending with the suffix of -tion; however, there is a significant number of words which may help everyone have a better understanding and appreciation of the use of this element.

trajection
transcription
1. Something that has been transcribed.
2. A phonetic representation of speech using special symbols.
transition (tran ZISH uhn, tran SISH uhn) (s) (noun), transitions (pl)
1. A change or going from one place, condition, thing, topic, etc. to another one: Jesse made a significant transition from being a university student to being a successful specialist in technology in a very short time.
2. In music, a passing from one key to a different one: Gabriel had a talent of making beautiful piano transitions that were very entertaining for his audiences.
The process of changing from one activity or position to another one.
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tuition (s) (noun), tuitions (pl)
1. Payments that are paid to an educational establishments by students for the right to study there: Karl's parents are paying his tuition so he can attend the university next year.
2. Etymology: from Latin tuitionem, "guard, protection, defense; from tui-,stemof tueri, "to look after, to protect, to watch over".

The meaning of "money paid for teaching or instruction" is first recorded in 1828, in American English, probably a shortening of "tuition money, tuition fees", and derives from the earlier extended meaning of "an act of teaching, instruction of a pupil or pupils".

—According to The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
by Robert K. Barnhart, Editor; The H.W. Wilson Company; 1988; page 1174.
unconditional (adjective), more unconditional, most unconditional
1. Complete or guaranteed, with no limitations, or restrictions attached: "Hank, the plumber, made an unconditional promise to fix the water pipes today."
2. Etymology: from un-,"not" + conditional, from Old French condition, from Latin condicionem, "agreement, situation"; from condicere, "to speak with, to talk together"; from com-, "together" + dicere, "to speak".
unction
1. The act of anointing as part of a religious, ceremonial, or healing ritual.
2. An ointment or oil; a salve.
3. Something that serves to soothe; a balm.
4. Affected or exaggerated earnestness, especially in choice and use of language.
5. Excessive but superficial compliments given with affected charm.
6. A semisolid preparation (usually containing a medicine) applied externally as a remedy or for soothing an irritation; ointment, unguent, balm, salve.
7. Anointing as part of a religious ceremony or healing ritual; inunction.
vivisection
1. The process of operating on living animals; especially, in scientific research.
2. To dissect a live animal, by observing the functioning body systems; such as, to observe the effects of certain stimulants or depressants on a beating heart.

The animal is rendered unconscious before the vivisection is done.

3. The act or practice of cutting into, or otherwise injuring, living animals; especially, for the purpose of scientific research.

Vivisection from the historical perspective

Defined literally the word vivisection signifies the dissection of living creatures; ordinarily it means any scientific experiment on animals involving the use of the scalpel.

  • The literal dissection of living animals is not practiced anywhere, because it is much more convenient to study the structure of man's body in the cadaver.
  • According to Aulus Cornelius Celsus, who lived in the reign of Tiberius, and Tertullian (about 160-240) living criminals were dismembered at Alexandria in the reigns of Ptolemy II (285-247 B.C.) and Ptolemy III (247-221 B.C.).
  • The same act was maliciously attributed to Jacobus Berengarius, Andreas Vesalius, and Gabriel Fallopius, celebrated anatomists of the sixteenth century.
  • The history of scientific observation of, and experimentation upon animals, both bloodless and bloody, began at the moment when it was perceived that the processes of nature could be discovered only by the exact observation of nature and not by philosophical methods.
  • For physiological and pathological research experimentation with animals is an indispensable aid, while for medical science it is of significant value.
  • Such procedures give a view of the working processes of the living organism, permits us to produce diseases artificially, and to investigate the organic changes produced by these diseases in each stage of their course.
  • Before William Harvey (1578-1657) could announce his discovery of the circulation of the blood, he was obliged, as he confesses, to make for years innumerable vivisections of animals of all kinds, because he could investigate the mechanism of the circulation only in the living animal.
  • He was able to reach the conclusion that the arteries which are empty in the corpse are filled with blood during life and not with air, as was believed until then.

—Clips based on information from
Senfelder, Leopold. "Moral Aspect of Vivisection." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15.
New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912.

Much more information of interest about this topic may be seen at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15494a.htm

vomition
The act or power of vomiting.