- accurate
- 1610s, "done with care," from L. accuratus "prepared with care, exact," pp. of accurare "take care of," from ad- "to" + curare "take care of" (see cure). The notion of doing something carefully led to that of being exact (1650s). Related: Accuracy.
- exact (adj.)
- "precise, rigorous, accurate," 1530s, from L. exactus "precise, accurate, exact," pp. of exigere "demand, require," lit. "to drive or force out," also "demand, finish, measure," from ex- "out" (see ex-) + agere "drive, lead, act" (see act).
- Myanmar
- officially chosen by rulers of Burma in 1989 as a more accurate transliteration of the native name.
- inaccurate
- 1738, from in- (1) “not” + accurate. Related: Inaccurately.
- vouch
- early 14c., "summon into court to prove a title," from Anglo-Fr. voucher, O.Fr. vocher "to call, summon, invoke, claim," probably from Gallo-Romance *voticare, metathesis of L. vocitare "to call to, summon insistently," frequentative of L. vocare "to call, call upon, summon" (see voice). Meaning "guarantee to be true or accurate" is first attested 1590s.
- Indo-European
- 1814, coined by physician, physicist and Egyptologist Thomas Young (1773-1829) and first used in an article in the "Quarterly Review," from Indo-, comb. form of Gk. Indos "India" + European. "Common to India and Europe," specifically in ref. to the group of related languages and to the race or races characterized by their use. The alternative Indo-Germanic (1835) was coined in Ger. 1823 (indogermanisch), based on the two peoples at the extremes of the geographic area covered by the languages, before Celtic was realized also to be an Indo-European language. After this was proved, many Ger. scholars switched to Indo-European as more accurate, but Indo-Germanic continued in use (popularized by the titles of major works) and the predominance of Ger. scholarship in this field made it the popular term in England, too, through the 19c. See also Aryan.
- Bible
- early 14c., from Anglo-L. biblia, from M.L./L.L. biblia (neuter plural interpreted as fem. singular), in phrase biblia sacra "holy books," a translation of Gk. ta biblia to hagia "the holy books," from Gk. biblion "paper, scroll," the ordinary word for "book," originally a dim. of byblos "Egyptian papyrus," possibly so called from Byblos (modern Jebeil, Lebanon), the name of the Phoenician port from which Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece (cf. parchment). Or the place name might be from the Gk. word, which would then probably be of Egyptian origin. The Christian scripture was refered to in Gk. as Ta Biblia as early as c.223. Bible replaced O.E. bibliođece (see bibliothek) as the ordinary word for "the Scriptures." Figurative sense of "any authoritative book" is from 1804.
Walter Scott and Pope's Homer were reading of my own election, but my mother forced me, by steady daily toil, to learn long chapters of the Bible by heart; as well as to read it every syllable through, aloud, hard names and all, from Genesis to the Apocalypse, about once a year; and to that discipline -- patient, accurate, and resolute -- I owe, not only a knowledge of the book, which I find occasionally serviceable, but much of my general power of taking pains, and the best part of my taste in literature. ... [O]nce knowing the 32nd of Deuteronomy, the 119th Psalm, the 15th of 1st Corinthians, the Sermon on the Mount, and most of the Apocalypse, every syllable by heart, and having always a way of thinking with myself what words meant, it was not possible for me, even in the foolishest times of youth, to write entirely superficial or formal English .... [John Ruskin, "Fors Clavigera," 1871]