FYI (FOR YOUR INFORMATION): ERADICATE

Dear Students:
In class on September 21st, students asked about the word ERADICATE. Please see the following four entries I found on DICTIONARY.COM. Interestingly enough, the RAD(IX) word room is the main wordstem for the word "ROOT," which tells us why we have the word "radish" as in the red vegetable root and radical, etc.

Good luck.
Robert

1)
e·rad·i·cate ( P ) Pronunciation Key (-rd-kt)
tr.v. e·rad·i·cat·ed, e·rad·i·cat·ing, e·rad·i·cates
To tear up by the roots.
To get rid of as if by tearing up by the roots: Their goal was to eradicate poverty. See Synonyms at abolish. See Synonyms at eliminate.

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[Middle English eradicaten, from Latin rdcre, rdct- : -, ex-, ex- + rdx, rdc-, root; see wrd- in Indo-European Roots.]
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e·radi·ca·ble (-k-bl) adj.
e·radi·cation n.
e·radi·cative adj.
e·radi·cator n.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

2)
eradicate

\E*rad"i*cate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Eradicated; p. pr. & vb. n. Eradicating.] [L. eradicatus, p. p. of eradicare to eradicate; e out + radix, radicis, root. See Radical.] 1. To pluck up by the roots; to root up; as, an oak tree eradicated.

2. To root out; to destroy utterly; to extirpate; as, to eradicate diseases, or errors.

This, although now an old an inveterate evil, might be eradicated by vigorous treatment. --Southey.

Syn: To extirpate; root out; exterminate; destroy; annihilate.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

3)
eradicate

v 1: kill in large numbers; "the plague wiped out an entire population" [syn: eliminate, annihilate, extinguish, wipe out, decimate, carry off] 2: destroy completely, as if down to the roots; "the vestiges of political democracy were soon uprooted" [syn: uproot, extirpate, exterminate]

Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

4)
eradicate

eradicate: in CancerWEB's On-line Medical Dictionary

Source: On-line Medical Dictionary, © 1997-98 Academic Medical Publishing & CancerWEB