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Root vs Shaft - What's the difference?

root | shaft |

As a proper noun root

is .

As a noun shaft is

(lb) the entire body of a long weapon, such as an arrow.

As a verb shaft is

(slang) to fuck over; to cause harm to, especially through deceit or treachery.

root

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) ; cognate with wort and radix.

Noun

(en noun)
  • The part of a plant, generally underground, that absorbs water and nutrients.
  • This tree's roots can go as deep as twenty metres underground.
  • A root vegetable.
  • *
  • 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.
  • The part of a tooth extending into the bone holding the tooth in place.
  • Root damage is a common problem of overbrushing.
  • The part of a hair under the skin that holds the hair in place.
  • The root is the only part of the hair that is alive.
  • The part of a hair near the skin that has not been dyed, permed, or otherwise treated.
  • He dyed his hair black last month, so the grey roots can be seen.
  • The primary source; origin.
  • The love of money is the root of all evil.
  • * John Locke
  • They were the roots out of which sprang two distinct people.
  • (arithmetic) Of a number or expression, a number which, when raised to a specified power, yields the specified number or expression.
  • The cube root of 27 is 3.
  • (arithmetic) A square root (understood if no power is specified; in which case, “the root of” is often abbreviated to “root”).
  • Multiply by root 2.
  • (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.
  • (Busby)
  • The lowest place, position, or part.
  • * Milton
  • deep to the roots of hell
  • * Southey
  • the roots of the mountains
  • (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)
  • Synonyms
    * (source) basis, origin, source * (zero of a function) zero * (word from which another is derived) etymon * superuser (), root account, root user
    Antonyms
    * (zero of a function) pole
    Holonyms
    * (zero of a function) kernel
    Derived 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 gap

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (computing, slang, transitive) To break into a computer system and obtain root access.
  • We rooted his box and planted a virus on it.
  • To fix the root; to enter the earth, as roots; to take root and begin to grow.
  • * Mortimer
  • In deep grounds the weeds root deeper.
  • * '>citation
  • To be firmly fixed; to be established.
  • * Bishop Fell
  • If any irregularity chanced to intervene and to cause misapprehensions, he gave them not leave to root and fasten by concealment.

    See also

    * (linguistics) stem

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) . Cognate with rodent. Cognate with Dutch wroeten.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To turn up or dig with the snout.
  • A pig roots the earth for truffles.
  • (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.
  • rooting about in a junk-filled drawer
  • To root out; to abolish.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I will go root away the noisome weeds.
  • * Bible, Deuteronomy xxix. 28
  • The Lord rooted them out of their land and cast them into another land.
  • (Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, slang) To have sexual intercourse.
  • 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 also
    Derived terms
    * root about * rooted * root out * root up

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, slang) An act of sexual intercourse.
  • Fancy a root ?
  • (Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, slang) A sexual partner.
  • 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 hoot

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (intransitive, with for, US) To cheer to show support for.
  • * 1908 ,
  • Let me root', '''root''', ' root for the home team,
  • (US) To hope for the success of. Rendered as 'root for'.
  • I'm rooting for you, don't let me down!
    Synonyms
    * (cheer) barrack (qualifier), cheer on

    Anagrams

    * ----

    shaft

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (lb) The entire body of a long weapon, such as an arrow.
  • * , (Geoffrey Chaucer):
  • His sleep, his meat, his drink, is him bereft, /
  • * , (Roger Ascham):
  • A shaft hath three principal parts, the stele, the feathers, and the head.
  • The long, narrow, central body of a spear, arrow, or javelin.
  • *
  • Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out.. Ikey the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft .
  • (lb) Anything cast or thrown as a spear or javelin.
  • * , (John Milton):
  • And the thunder, / Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage, / Perhaps
  • * , (Vicesimus Knox):
  • Some kinds of literary pursuitshave been attacked with all the shafts of ridicule.
  • Any long thin object, such as the handle of a tool, one of the poles between which an animal is harnessed to a vehicle, the driveshaft of a motorized vehicle with rear-wheel drive, an axle, etc.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Lee S. Langston, magazine=(American Scientist)
  • , title= The Adaptable Gas Turbine , passage=Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo'', meaning ''vortex , and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.}}
  • A beam or ray of light.
  • * 1912 , (Willa Cather), :
  • They were a fine company of old women, and a Dutch painter would have loved to find them there together, where the sun made bright patches on the floor and sent long, quivering shafts of gold through the dusky shade up among the rafters.
  • The main axis of a feather.
  • (lb) The long narrow body of a lacrosse stick.
  • A long, narrow passage sunk into the earth, either natural or for artificial.
  • A vertical passage housing a lift or elevator; a liftshaft.
  • A ventilation or heating conduit; an air duct.
  • (lb) Any column or pillar, particularly the body of a column between its capital and pediment.
  • * , (Ralph Waldo Emerson):
  • Bid time and nature gently spare /
  • The main cylindrical part of the penis.
  • The chamber of a blast furnace.
  • Usage notes

    In Early Modern English, the shaft referred to the entire body of a long weapon, such that an arrow's "shaft" was composed of its "tip", "stale" or "steal", and "fletching". empenne as "I [[feather, fether a shafte, I put fethers upon a steale". Over time, the word came to be used in place of the former "stale" and lost its original meaning.

    Synonyms

    * stale, stail, steal, stele, steel (arrows, spears ) * mineshaft (vertical underground passage )

    Derived terms

    (der top) * to give someone the shaft * to get the shaft (der bottom)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (slang) To fuck over; to cause harm to, especially through deceit or treachery.
  • Your boss really shafted you by stealing your idea like that.
  • to equip with a shaft.
  • (slang) To fuck; to have sexual intercourse with.
  • Turns out my roommate was shafting my girlfriend.