# Tell me about the root "empt" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 30, 2009, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812 "2009-04-30T03:36:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MichaelQReilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@MichaelQReilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelQReilly)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812/1 "2009-04-30T03:36:54Z")
My girlfriend and I have an ongoing game in which we try and use little used or unused roots words when a longer version of the word is common. For example, whelmed (underwhelmed or overwhelmed), peat (repeat), or juvenated (rejuvenated). So anyway, today I thought of “empt” as in preempt. When I talked to my girlfriend about it we both realized we had no clue what empt could possibly mean. I have no OED on hand and Google has turned up nothing, anyone know? ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812/2 "2009-04-30T03:47:51Z")
[This](http://www.usafa.edu/isme/JSCOPE05/Mattox05.html) might be overkill for your question (the short answer is “emere”, to buy or purchase), but it certainly answers it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812/3 "2009-04-30T03:49:21Z")
Empt comes from the Latin verb “to buy, procure”, which is _emo, emere, emi, **emp** tum_. The associated noun, “the act of buying” is _emptio_. Hence, in English, the verb to pre-empt: to acquire or appropriate something beforehand, and by extension, to anticipate something. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812/4 "2009-04-30T03:55:58Z")
I forgot to add that the same root is evident in the well-know Latin phrase \*caveat emptor \*(“let the buyer beware”). ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812/5 "2009-04-30T05:22:56Z")
So that’s why consumerism leaves you with that empty feeling. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812/6 "2009-04-30T05:52:30Z")
Oddly enough the word empty has no connection at all with the Latin _emo_, etc. It’s from an Old English word _emetta, emetti_ meaning leisure. In fact the initial sense of the term in Old English, when used of persons, was “at leisure, not occupied or engaged. Also, unmarried”. When used of things it meant, as the modern word still does, unfilled. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812/7 "2009-04-30T06:01:48Z")
> [@](#): > > Oddly enough the word empty has no connection at all with the Latin emo, etc. It’s from an Old English word emetta, emetti meaning leisure. While we’re at it on “leisure”, the Latin word for “leisure” is “otium”. “Negotium”, then, is what you’re involved in when you’re not relaxing, which is to say, work. Whence our word “Negotiate”. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAlecCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SmartAlecCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAlecCat)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812/8 "2009-04-30T11:51:52Z")
> [@MichaelQReilly](#): > > My girlfriend and I have an ongoing game in which we try and use little used or unused roots words when a longer version of the word is common. Sometimes I tell my wife we need to combobulate something. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812/9 "2009-04-30T11:56:46Z")
Sounds like it leaves both of you feeling gruntled. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelQReilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@MichaelQReilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelQReilly)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812/10 "2009-04-30T14:23:11Z")
> [@SmartAlecCat](#): > > Sometimes I tell my wife we need to combobulate something. Haha. That is one of our favorites. When one of use is feeling good we say we are combobulated. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812/11 "2009-04-30T15:33:37Z")
Incidentally, such a formation (assuming it is not already a word, if obsolete) is called a _retronym_ or back formation. I am feeling quite kempt today. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812/12 "2009-04-30T16:01:02Z")
Can you “post-empt” something? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812/13 "2009-04-30T16:07:16Z")
> [@MichaelQReilly](#): > > My girlfriend and I have an ongoing game in which we try and use little used or unused roots words when a longer version of the word is common. For example, whelmed (underwhelmed or overwhelmed), peat (repeat), or juvenated (rejuvenated). So anyway, today I thought of “empt” as in preempt. When I talked to my girlfriend about it we both realized we had no clue what empt could possibly mean. I have no OED on hand and Google has turned up nothing, anyone know? For my own edification: [whelmed](http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=whelmed) Peat - Not a word (well…it’s moss, but that’s unrelated) Juvenated - Also not a word (so far as I can tell) ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812/14 "2009-04-30T16:26:09Z")
[The Word Detective](http://www.word-detective.com/) often answers questions like this one. I remember him covering “whelmed” and “overwhelmed”, and I definitely recommend checking out his archives. He’s like a Cecil for words. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelQReilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@MichaelQReilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelQReilly)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812/15 "2009-04-30T16:26:30Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > For my own edification: > > [whelmed](http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=whelmed) > Peat - Not a word (well…it’s moss, but that’s unrelated) > Juvenated - Also not a word (so far as I can tell) Yeah, I know that some of them aren’t actually words or that the non-prefixed meaning doesn’t really relate to the prefixed meaning, but it’s fun anyway. 🙂 I mean surely if the word repeat means to do something again than to peat something should mean to do it the first time. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812/16 "2009-04-30T16:34:57Z")
I’m failing to see the connection between **exempt** and the root. Anyone with the insight on this one? ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812/17 "2009-04-30T16:47:26Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > I’m failing to see the connection between **exempt** and the root. Anyone with the insight on this one? [To take out](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=exempt) ETA: Funny line from “An Officer and a Gentleman” which wasn’t kept in all versions of the film. The drill sergeant is explaining a grenade and says something like: “The grenade with the pin in it is inert. If you pull out the pin, it becomes ert.” ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812/18 "2009-04-30T17:43:07Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > I’m failing to see the connection between **exempt** and the root. Anyone with the insight on this one? **Roman Garage Sale Customer** : is this old chariot for sale? **Roman Sampiro** : No, it’s exempt. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MichaelQReilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@MichaelQReilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelQReilly)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812/19 "2009-04-30T17:59:12Z")
Just thought of a new one. Somebody in the office was just talking about being in a wedding this weekend. So is the job of an usher to ush people? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812/20 "2009-04-30T18:01:02Z")
If I recall correctly, Paddington the Bear was under that misapprehension in one of the original stories. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-the-root-empt/494812.md?page=2)