Root vs Factor - What's the difference?
root | factor |
The part of a plant, generally underground, that absorbs water and nutrients.
A root vegetable.
*
The part of a tooth extending into the bone holding the tooth in place.
The part of a hair under the skin that holds the hair in place.
The part of a hair near the skin that has not been dyed, permed, or otherwise treated.
The primary source; origin.
* John Locke
(arithmetic) Of a number or expression, a number which, when raised to a specified power, yields the specified number or expression.
(arithmetic) A square root (understood if no power is specified; in which case, “the root of” is often abbreviated to “root”).
(analysis) A zero (of a function).
(graph theory, computing) The single node of a tree that has no parent.
(linguistic morphology) The primary lexical unit of a word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents. Inflectional stems often derive from roots.
(philology) A word from which another word or words are derived.
(music) The fundamental tone of any chord; the tone from whose harmonics, or overtones, a chord is composed.
The lowest place, position, or part.
* Milton
* Southey
(computing) In UNIX terminology, the first user account with complete access to the operating system and its configuration, found at the root of the directory structure.
(computing) The person who manages accounts on a UNIX system.
(computing) The highest directory of a directory structure which may contain both files and subdirectories. (rfex)
(computing, slang, transitive) To break into a computer system and obtain root access.
To fix the root; to enter the earth, as roots; to take root and begin to grow.
* Mortimer
* '>citation
To be firmly fixed; to be established.
* Bishop Fell
To turn up or dig with the snout.
(by extension) To seek favour or advancement by low arts or grovelling servility; to fawn.
To rummage, to search as if by digging in soil.
To root out; to abolish.
* Shakespeare
* Bible, Deuteronomy xxix. 28
(Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, slang) To have sexual intercourse.
(Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, slang) An act of sexual intercourse.
(Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, slang) A sexual partner.
(intransitive, with for, US) To cheer to show support for.
* 1908 ,
(US) To hope for the success of. Rendered as 'root for'.
(obsolete) A doer, maker; a person who does things for another person or organization.
An agent or representative.
* (Christopher Marlowe)
*, II.21:
*:And let such as will number the Kings of Castile and Portugall amongst the warlike and magnanimous conquerors, seeke for some other adherent then my selfe, forsomuch as twelve hundred leagues from their idle residence they have made themselves masters of both Indias, onely by the conduct and direction of their factors , of whom it would be knowne whether they durst but goe and enjoy them in person.
* 1644 , (John Milton), (Aeropagitica) :
(legal)
# A commission agent.
# A person or business organization that provides money for another's new business venture; one who finances another's business.
# A business organization that lends money on accounts receivable or buys and collects accounts receivable.
One of the elements, circumstances, or influences which contribute to produce a result.
* (Herbert Spencer)
(mathematics) Any of various objects multiplied together to form some whole.
* 1956 , , (The City and the Stars) , p.38:
(root cause analysis) Influence; a phenomenon that affects the nature, the magnitude, and/or the timing of a consequence.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=
, title= (economics) A resource used in the production of goods or services, a factor of production.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=68, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (Scotland) A steward or bailiff of an estate.
To find all the factors of (a number or other mathematical object) (the objects that divide it evenly).
(of a number or other mathematical object) To be a product of other objects.
As a proper noun root
is .As a noun factor is
(obsolete) a doer, maker; a person who does things for another person or organization.As a verb factor is
to find all the factors of (a number or other mathematical object) (the objects that divide it evenly).root
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) ; cognate with wort and radix.Noun
(en noun)- This tree's roots can go as deep as twenty metres underground.
- two fields which should have been sown with roots in the early summer were not sown because the ploughing had not been completed early enough.
- Root damage is a common problem of overbrushing.
- The root is the only part of the hair that is alive.
- He dyed his hair black last month, so the grey roots can be seen.
- The love of money is the root of all evil.
- They were the roots out of which sprang two distinct people.
- The cube root of 27 is 3.
- Multiply by root 2.
- (Busby)
- deep to the roots of hell
- the roots of the mountains
Synonyms
* (source) basis, origin, source * (zero of a function) zero * (word from which another is derived) etymon * superuser (), root account, root userAntonyms
* (zero of a function) poleHolonyms
* (zero of a function) kernelDerived terms
* cube root * functional root * put down roots * root canal * root cause * rootkit * roots * roots music * rootsy * square root * strictly roots * take root * taproot * root gapVerb
(en verb)- We rooted his box and planted a virus on it.
- In deep grounds the weeds root deeper.
- If any irregularity chanced to intervene and to cause misapprehensions, he gave them not leave to root and fasten by concealment.
See also
* (linguistics) stemEtymology 2
From (etyl) . Cognate with rodent. Cognate with Dutch wroeten.Verb
(en verb)- A pig roots the earth for truffles.
- rooting about in a junk-filled drawer
- I will go root away the noisome weeds.
- The Lord rooted them out of their land and cast them into another land.
Usage notes
* The Australian/New Zealand sexual sense is somewhat milder than fuck but still quite coarse, certainly not for polite conversation. The sexual sense will often be understood, unless care is taken with the context to make the rummage sense clear, or 'root through' or 'root around' is used. The past participle rooted'' is equivalent to ''fucked'' in the figurative sense of broken or tired, but ''rooting'' is only the direct verbal sense, not an all-purpose intensive like ''fucking .Synonyms
* (rummage) dig out, root out, rummage * (have sexual intercourse) screw, bang, drill (US), shag (British) - See alsoDerived terms
* root about * rooted * root out * root upNoun
(en noun)- Fancy a root ?
Usage notes
* The Australian/New Zealand sexual sense of root'' is somewhat milder than ''fuck'' but still quite coarse, certainly not for polite conversation. The normal usage is ''to have a root or similar.Synonyms
* (act of sexual intercourse) screw (qualifier), shag (UK); see also * (sexual partner) screw (US)Etymology 3
Possibly an alteration of , influenced by hootVerb
(en verb)- Let me root', '''root''', ' root for the home team,
- I'm rooting for you, don't let me down!
Synonyms
* (cheer) barrack (qualifier), cheer onAnagrams
* ----factor
English
(wikipedia factor)Alternative forms
* factour (archaic)Noun
(en noun)- My factor sends me word, a merchant's fled / That owes me for a hundred tun of wine.
- What does he therefore, but resolvs to give over toyling, and to find himself out som factor , to whose care and credit he may commit the whole managing of his religious affairs; som Divine of note and estimation that must be.
- the material and dynamical factors of nutrition
- The first thousand primesthe complete sequence of all those numbers that possessed no factors except themselves and unity.
Charles T. Ambrose
Alzheimer’s Disease, volume=101, issue=3, page=200, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems— […]. Such a slow-release device containing angiogenic factors could be placed on the pia mater covering the cerebral cortex and tested in persons with senile dementia in long term studies.}}
T time, passage=The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them
- (Sir Walter Scott)
