Word of the day: adduce

For those fans of Dooce's blog, I offer today's insightful (if not humorous) Word of the Day from the fine folks at Merriam-Webster:

 

The Word of the Day for May 1 is:

adduce \uh-DOOSS\ verb

: to offer as example, reason, or proof in discussion or analysis

Example sentence:

"Leon has made some pretty strong accusations here tonight," said Tim, "but he has adduced no convincing evidence in support of them."

Did you know?

We won't lead you astray over the history of "adduce"; it is one of a plethora of familiar words that trace to the Latin root "ducere," which means "to lead." Perhaps we can induce you to deduce a few other "ducere" offspring if we offer a few hints about them. One is another term for kidnapping, one's a title for a British royal, and one's a process of abridging or consolidating something. Give up? They are "abduct," "duke," and "reduce," respectively. There are also many others, including "induce," which means "to persuade" or "to bring about."