Your ShelfYour Projects
Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Radical

Rād'i-cal, a.

adjective

a. [Fr., Pr., Sp., & Pg. radical, It. radicale, from Lat. radix, radicis, a root.]

Sense 1. Pertaining to the root; proceeding directly from the root.

Sense 2. Hence, pertaining, or relating, to the root or origin; reaching to the center, to the foundation, to the ultimate sources, or the like; original; hence, also, reaching to the principles; fundamental; thoroughgoing; unsparing; extreme.

The most determined exertions of that authority, against them, only showed their radical independence. Burke.

Sense 3. (Bot.) (a.) Proceeding from the stem at or below the surface of the ground, as if from the root, as do the leaves of some plants. (b.) Belonging to the root of a plant; as, radical hairs.

Sense 4. (Gram.) Relating, or belonging, to a root, or ultimate source of derivation.

Radical pitch, the pitch or tone with which the utterance of a syllable begins. Dr. James Rush. — Radical quantity (Alg.), a quantity to which the radical sign is prefixed; more specifically, a quantity which is not a perfect power of the degree indicated by the radical sign. “An indicated root of a perfect power of the degree indicated is not a radical, but a rational quantity under the radical form.” Math. Dict. — Radical sign (Math.), the sign √ (originally the letter r, the initial of radix, root), placed before any quantity, denoting that its root is to be extracted; thus, √a, or √(a + b). To indicate any other than the square root, a corresponding figure is placed over the sign; thus, ∛9 indicates the third or cube root of 9. — Radical stress (Elocution), force of utterance falling on the initial part of a syllable or sound.

Synonyms— Primitive; original; natural; underived; fundamental; entire. — RADICAL, ENTIRE. These words are frequently interchanged in describing some marked alteration in the condition of things. There is, however, an obvious difference between them. A radical cure, reform, &c., is one which goes to the root of the thing in question; entire would imply that it extended to every part of the system referred to. Hence, we speak of a radical change; a radical improvement; radical differences of opinion; while an entire change, an entire improvement, an entire difference of opinion, might indicate more than was actually intended.

Rād'i-cal, n.

noun

n. 1. (Philology.) (a.) A primitive word; a radix, root, or simple, underived, uncompounded word; an etymon. (b.) A primitive letter; a letter that belongs to the radix.

The words we at present make use of, and understand only by common agreement, assume a new air and life in the understanding, when you trace them to their radicals, where you find every word strongly stamped with nature; full of energy, meaning, character, painting, and poetry. Cleland.

Sense 2. (Politics.) One who advocates a radical reform, or extreme measures in reformation.

In politics they [the Independents] were, to use the phrase of their own time, “Root-and-Branch men,” or, to use the kindred phrase of our own, Radicals. Macaulay.

Sense 3. (Chem.) An element (or molecular group, and thence called compound radical), whether insoluble or not, that may be transferred from one combination to another in exchange for one or more atoms of hydrogen or its representatives. Odling.