Avert vs. Avoid

Avert vs. Avoid Avert vs. Avoid Avert vs. Avoid By Mark Nichol What’s the difference between avert and avoid? They share a primary meaning (with a subtle but significant distinction) but despite their structural similarity are etymologically unrelated. This post discusses their senses and origins and those of similar-looking synonyms. Avert derives from the Latin verb vertere, which means â€Å"turn.† To avert is literally to turn away; one averts one’s eyes or gaze when one turns away, so as not to make eye contact or see something. But avert also means â€Å"prevent† or â€Å"ward off,† a sense it shares with avoid. However, while avert implies active effort to stop something from happening, avoid often suggests keeping away from or refraining from something rather than preventive action. One averts disaster by doing something to stop it, while one avoids it by removing oneself from a situation that will result in disaster. Aversion, originally the noun form of avert, still alludes to the physical act of turning away in its modern senses of â€Å"dislike† or â€Å"repugnance†; more rarely, it refers to an object of antipathy. Avoid stems from the Latin verb vuider, which means â€Å"empty† and is also the origin of void, which as a verb means â€Å"empty† and as a noun means â€Å"emptiness.† The a is a vestige of the Latin prefix ex-, in this sense meaning â€Å"out†; the prefix, slightly altered in the Old French word esvuider, ended up in Anglo-French as the first letter of avoider, from which the English word avoid is derived. (Devoid, meaning â€Å"without,† also has the root word void.) Something is said to be avoidable, and an act or practice of avoiding is avoidance. Another word that appears to be related to avert and avoid is evade, which means â€Å"avoid† or â€Å"escape† but its origin is the Latin verb vadere, meaning â€Å"go†; to evade is literally to not go. Something avoidable is also evadable, though this adjective is seldom used. The noun form is evasion. Inevitable, meaning â€Å"unable to be avoided,† is also unrelated; its antonym, evitable, is rare but also goes back hundreds of years. Their ultimate source is the Latin verb vitare, which means â€Å"shun.† In addition to being an adjective, inevitable sometimes appears as a noun, as shown in â€Å"Accept the inevitable† (meaning, â€Å"that which cannot be avoided†). Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:35 Synonyms for â€Å"Look†On Behalf Of vs. In Behalf OfEspecially vs. Specially

Funeral Home and Social Groups, an Important Part of American Society essays

Funeral Home and Social Groups, an Important Part of American Society essays Social groups have existed throughout human history, and are simply defined as having two or more individuals who interact and identify with one another (Macionis). Social groups play a crucial role in our lives. They form a crucial part of the social relationships that determine human social behavior (Peter Berger Invitation to Sociology). Social groups can exist with in a wide and diverse framework. They can consist simply of social groups that are based on social categories like gender, race, class, interests, or age. They can also exist within institutions like family, law, religion, the media, education, medicine, business, nonprofit organizations, the arts, science, and professions. Social groups can include family groups (based on marriage and kinship relationships), work groups (based on employment), peer groups (based on age), and even friendship groups (based on feelings of friendship between members) (Peter Berger Invitation to Sociology). Group dynamics are driven by a number of different factors. Intra- group perspectives such as conformity, leadership, and group decision- making play an important role in group dynamics. Further, inter-group perspectives like social identity, stereotyping, and social categorization are important in the relationships between groups (Stangor). Formal organizations can act as a significant social group, and face their own special considerations. These groups are impacted by the relationships between organizations themselves, change in the organization, relationships between the organization and its environment, and conflict within the organization. As such, organizational behavior, entire sub discipline of sociology and psychology has grown up around the study of the Modern American society consists of a wide number of social groups and organizations, including school, government, family, religious, and s...

Organizational stakeholders Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Organizational stakeholders - Essay Example Home Depot being a company running on such a large scale has a great responsibility towards its stakeholders. Home Depots major stakeholders include its board of directors and shareholders/investors, the customers, employees and the suppliers. Bob Nardelli, the former chairman and chief executive of Home Depot contributed greatly towards the success and expansion of the organization. Nardelli was a true leader and followed an autocratic approach. However, along with the positive changes that Nardelli brought with him, he also made some mistakes that greatly affective various stakeholders of the company. Nardelli was considered to have an arrogant and authoritative approach which was a cause for alienation of many stakeholders. Nardellis attempt on cutting down labor costs by hiring more part-time workers as compared to full-time lead to the loss of good workforce. This also lowered the morale of the existing workers. Another one of his errors was the cut back of inventory budget which left the stores undersupplied and the customers dissatisfied. Nardellis attempt of increasing profit margin through demanding lower prices from suppliers led to the loss of significant vendors as they were not satisfied with the price offerings. Most importantly, Nardellis hefty pay was a great source of concern to shareholders and corporate governance groups and was prone to a lot criticism. Under the chairmanship of Nardelli, shareholders were not given the rights that they were entitled to and were not given an opportunity to speak up. This shareholders matter led to the arousal of Nardellis credib ility issues which made the investors lose trust in him and his management (Waters, 2007). This was one of the biggest set backs for him as the shareholders tend to hold immense influence on the organization. The present chairman and CEO of Home Depot is Frank Blake. Many

HOW TO ATTRACT MORE BUSINESS MAJORTO QUEENSBOROUGH COMMUNITYCOLLEGE Essay

HOW TO ATTRACT MORE BUSINESS MAJORTO QUEENSBOROUGH COMMUNITYCOLLEGE - Essay Example And this college holds a good reputation which is because of the good quality education provided by the highly qualified faculty in here and also the environment provided by the administration. They provide well-planned curriculum that helps students in learning. It also provides job training program and short courses for businessmen and professionals so that they can excel in information technology. The college offers nine associate degree courses in liberal arts and sciences and fifteen in career development area and ten specialized certificate programs. Transfer program is for the students who are planning to continue their studies after completing this course. After completing two years program from this college they will be transferred to the senior college. Career program is for those students who wish to go for their careers and jobs right after completing their degrees. The most enrolled programs include liberal arts and sciences, business administration and nursing pre clinical. The Business department of Queens Borough College is one of the best in its respect. It has produced many students which are serving in different organization right now. It offers a good combination of courses in Business administration program that covers accounting, marketing, management and information technology etc. One course that is missing in the list is the Human Resource Management. Mostly business students like to opt Human Resource Management (HRM), as it is very popular and they can go in good career after completing their degree in HRM. So I suggest that HRM should be included in the list of the subjects. The Public Relations department should be improved, the first impression that the students get is about the college is from the attitude they receive from Information Desk or Office. So the people employed in Information Desk should be well-mannered and co-operative. The students who want to study Business as their major, wants to persuade their career in this field, so the college must recognize those students and should support them fully in achieving their target. Their target could be achieved by having quality education and the second thing that counts is that how much you are interacting with the real business environment in the city. They must be given assignments and projects that could be done by going to different organizations, like this they would be given a chance to be in contact with business people and the personnel that are sitting in actual market where they will go tomorrow for job hunting. Secondly, the faculty members should also get themselves in contact with the businessmen in the city so that when the students go to any organization, they should be fully recognized and be given proper attention at that place. The method of teaching and the environment in classroom and college must be unbiased towards minorities, like foreigners, African-Americans and women. If it is not, then it's a reason of creating discrimination and also this discrimination is a major reason of repulsion from any place or any environment. If they felt like this, they would never like to come to this place and would never like to study here. Delegations should be sent in high schools and there should be some training sessions for the students also. As they are the ones who will be getting admission in college and will be the one choosing

Concept of Compounding DQ2 Positive NPV Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Concept of Compounding DQ2 Positive NPV - Essay Example d amount of money or an expected cash flow; for instance if a person has $500 that money will be worth less in the future because money depreciates due to the effect of inflation. Based on the time value of money present value table $500 discounted at 3% will be worth $431.30 five years from now (Besley & Brigham, 2000). The NPV value technique is often used by managers when making decisions regarding capital projects. A project should only be accepted if its NPV is above cero (Garrison & Noreen, 2003). A positive net present value is the desirable outcome. When the NPV is negative a project should be rejected because a company would lose money by accepting such a project. The process to calculate net present value involves the use of present value tables to find the factoring factor. Another way to calculate the present value of an amount of money is by using financial calculators. Graphic calculators such as the Ti-89 titanium have integrated financial calculators in its systems which are very easy to use. The discounting rate a company uses depends on the risk the company is willing to take. Some companies require a higher discounting rate than others due to the industry in which they

Story Of The Dead Poets Society English Literature Essay

Story Of The Dead Poets Society English Literature Essay Charlie reveals the ideas of carpe diem in various ways. He feels that he can speak for other people, and he doesnt care if they like him or not. First, he invites girls to come to the Dead Poets Society club meeting. Then he tells them they can go in because its his cave. He also publishes an article in the school paper about how they should have girls at Welton in the name of the Dead Poet Society without the approval of any other members. He also pulls the phone call from God to gain attention, pretending to himself as a god when he says that the phone call is from God. In the end, he is expelled for punching Cameron. Charlie punches him because Cameron had just come from telling the administrators about the Dead Poets Society club and blamed Keating for everything. Charlie feels it doesnt matter if hes expelled or not. In addition, Neil seizes the day. Neil loves to do new stuffs, and come up with unique ideas. He is the one to call Keating O Captain! My Captain! and is the first able to ask him what the Dead Poets Society was. He is also the one to organize the first meeting of the club in the cave and hes also a leader. Neil also tells Todd that he must participate in the Dead Poets Society club no matter what. Each of the choices is Neils attempts to gain control over his own life. Neil lives by his fathers rules. Carpe diem motivating Neil to go after his dream of acting, but his father wouldnt let him. Going against his father, he decides to follow his heart by audition for A Midsummer Nights Dream Neil receives the part as Puck. He claims that this is the first time in his life that he knows what he wants. However, after the show his father takes him home and yells at him. He ends up committing suicide, by using his fathers gun. Knox also embraces living for the moment. Knox visits his parents friends, and soon falls in love with their daughter Chris. He broke his own rules to see her, and competed for her attention with her boyfriend Chet. At that party and after a few drinks, he makes a move on Chris and Chet was there, who then punches Knox. After that meeting, Knox does everything in his power to win her love over. Using his love of poetry, he presents one of his love poems in his English class, and is applauded by Keating. Then Knox travels to Chriss school and read his poem to her in class, later convincing her to go to a show with him. Chris does like the attention Knox gives her, and in the end, holds his hand at the play. Also, Todd finally can stand up by himself. Todd is a very quiet boy. He is the youngest of his family member and has many expectations laid upon him due to the success of his brother. Todds worst fear is that his life has no meaning. After the first day of class, Todd writes Carpe Diem on his paper, dreaming of what it would be like. But, he throws out the paper believing he has nothing to do with it Later, in class, after being asked to write a poem, Todd tells Keating he never completed the assignment after he spent many hours writing and revising his poem only to have thrown it away before class. Keating sees through Todds fear and later makes him say whatever comes to mind. This is the beginning of the change in Todd. He proves his loyalty to Keating by stand up to Camerons accusations of Keating. Todd is able to express his opinion that Cameron and the school are wrong. Students at Welton could not have any other choice for what they want to do or what type of person they want to be. But Mr. Keating teaching the boys learns to think on their own, and they all do their own stuffs with their own ideas. By doing that there were some good things happen such as Todds is a very quiet boy and shy who does not enjoy speaking himself in front of a lot of people but Mr. Keating helps him get over this fear, Todd finally finds a voice for himself that he never knew he had before, and Knox found his true love shows free thinking is an important thing in life because it lets everyone think and behave in different ways and situations. But there were some bad things such as Neils commits suicide and Charlies got expelled from his behavior shows we should learn to think before we do something.

Milton’s Paradise Lost Essay -- Milton’s Paradise Lost

Milton’s Paradise Lost has been praised as being the greatest English epic of all time, most stunningly in its author's depiction of the parents of humanity, Adam and Eve. How Milton chose to portray the original mother and father has been a focus of much criticism with contemporary readers. One of the main subjects of these comments is in reference to Eve, who, according to many, is a trivial character that is most definitely inferior to her mate. Nonetheless, many do not recognize that, after the fateful Fall, she becomes a much more evolved character. When Eve is introduced to the storyline of the epic, her character is shallow and extremely undeveloped, meant simply for display. She is quite firmly set as being inferior to her mate as a female in a predominantly male world. However, upon her decision to eat the apple from the Tree of Knowledge, her change is dramatic and she is no longer the simple character seriously lacking in depth of intellect or knowledge. Thus, as po rtrayed by Milton, the Fall of the parents of humanity is, in fact, an educational and developing process for Eve. Immediately upon the introduction of Eve to the epic she is clearly portrayed as being slightly dimwitted and unsophisticated, and seems to simply exist for the exhibition of her beauty and grace. She is shown as being desirable and extremely beautiful to look upon, as Milton often describes her beauty. Actually, the first time that Eve sees Adam she flees from him in fear, as he was not as beautiful as the image that she saw of herself in a pool of water. In fact, she was so infatuated with the image of herself that she would have remained had God not taken her away to meet her mate: â€Å"Pleas’d it return’d as soon with answering looks/ Of sy... ... 1959. 222-246. 11. Gulden, Ann, Torday. â€Å"Milton’s Eve and Wisdom: the ‘Dinner Party’ Scene in Paradise Lost. Milton Quarterly. 32.4 (1998) 137-143. 12. Hart, Thomas, E. â€Å"Milton’s Eve and the Ramayana’s Sita: Two Female Archetypes.† 1995. 13. Lewis, C.S. A Preface to Paradise Lost. London:Oxford University Press, 1942. 116- 121. !4. Milton, John. Paradise Lost and Other Poems. Intr. Edwards Le Comte. New York: Mentor Books, 1961. 33-343. 15. Milton, John. Milton: Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. Ed. Chrisropher Ricks. New York: New American Library, 1982. 16. Sampson, George. The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature. 2nd ed. London: Cambridge at the University Press, 1961. 357-370. 17. Stone, James, W. â€Å"Man’s Effeminate Slackness: Androgyny and the Divided Unity of Adam and Eve.† Milton Quarterly. 31.2 (1997) 33-42.