Language Of Confusion: Acting!, Part VI

And now, for the final part of our look at the Proto Indo European root ag-, to drive, draw out, or move [https://www.etymonline.com/word/*ag-]. Of course I saved the weirdest for last.
 
First, strategy, which is fairly new for a word, not having shown up until 1810, just three years after strategic, though stratagem showed up back in the late fifteenth century. The words are direct translations of the French stratégie and stratégique, which is from the Greek strategia and strategikos, same translations, from the word strategein, general. That word is actually a mix of stratos, army, and agos, leader, and agos is from agein, to lead, which is from ag-. The leader of an army has to use strategy, so that’s why we have strategy.
 
But that’s not weird enough. Purge showed up in the fourteenth century meaning clear of charge or suspicion, then to cleanse a person or soul of defilement. It comes from the Anglo French purger, Old French purgier, and classical Latin purgare, to clean. That’s a mix of the Old Latin purus, pure and our old friend agere, to act. To purge is to act to get something pure.
 
We can still go weirder. Cache showed up at the end of the eighteenth century meaning a hiding place, then anything stored in a hiding place a few decades later. It was actually slang from French Canadian trappers, from the French cacher, to hide, which is from the Vulgar Latin coacticare, to store up or collect. That’s from the classical Latin verb coactare, to constrain, which is related to cogere, to force together, which we talked about weeks ago as being the origin of cogent. The co- means together and the rest is agere, so it’s to force together. And cache is related to cogent.
 
Somehow that’s not the only word related to cogent. Squat showed up in the mid fourteenth century meaning to crush or flatten (despite not being related to squash), and then for some reason it also started to mean the posture of someone hunkering down, and then in the nineteenth century, someone squatting on land that isn’t theirs. It’s from the Old French esquatir/escatir, with the es- from ex-, out, and quatir, from the Vulgar Latin coactire, to be forced, which is also from cogere. To squat is to force out. Despite not meaning force or out now.
 
And last but not least: examine. Examine! It showed up in the fourteenth century meaning to test someone, then a little later also meant to scrutinize. It’s from the Old French examiner, from the classical Latin examinare, to examine, or, more literally, to weigh. That’s thought to be from exigere, to demand, the origin word for exact, as well as essay and assay, with the ex- meaning out and the rest meaning agere (so it’s also rather close to squat!). Examine is… to act out???
 
Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
Google Translate
Omniglot
University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center
University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Fordham University
BrightHub