apparatus

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See also: apparatûs, apparatūs, and apparátus

English

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin apparātus. Doublet of apparat.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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apparatus (plural apparatuses or apparatusses or apparatus or (both rare) apparatûs or apparatūs or (hypercorrect) apparati)

  1. The entirety of means whereby a specific production is made existent or task accomplished.
    Synonyms: dynamic, mechanism, setup
    • 1999 April 24, Martin Kettle, Alex Brummer, quoting Tony Blair, “The bombing goes on”, in The Guardian‎[1]:
      These television stations are part of the apparatus and power of Milosevic. This is the apparatus he has used to do the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. It is the apparatus that keeps him in power and we are entirely justified as Nato allies in damaging and taking on those targets.
    • 2014 July 29, George Monbiot, “The rich want us to believe their wealth is good for us all”, in The Guardian‎[2]:
      Among the many good points Thomas Piketty makes in Capital in the Twenty First Century – his world-changing but surprisingly mild book – is that extreme inequality can be sustained politically only through an “apparatus of justification”.
    • 2017 August 20, “The Observer view on the attacks in Spain”, in The Observer‎[3]:
      Many jihadist plots have been foiled and the security apparatus is getting better, overall, at pre-empting those who would do us ill. But, they say, the nature of the threat and the terrorists’ increasing use of low-tech, asymmetrical tactics such as hire vehicles and knives, make it all but impossible to stop every assault.
    • 2021 March 4, Emma Graham-Harrison, “China's Communist party ran campaign to discredit BBC, thinktank finds”, in The Guardian‎[4]:
      It describes a “coordinated effort by the CCP’s propaganda apparatus … to discredit the BBC, distract international attention and recapture control of the narrative,” mostly outside Chinese borders.
  2. A complex machine or instrument.
    Synonyms: device, instrument, machinery
    • 1880–1881, Thomas Hardy, chapter I, in A Laodicean; or, The Castle of the De Stancys. A Story of To-day. […], volume III, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, […], published 1881, →OCLC, book the fifth (De Stancy and Paula), page 40:
      “I have met my young photographer,” said De Stancy, cheerily. “What a small world it is, as every busybody truly observes! I am wishing he could take some views for us as we go on; but you have no apparatus with you, I suppose, Mr. Dare?”
    • 1983 July 30, Stacy V. Jones, “Apparatus For Study Of Planets”, in The New York Times‎[5], →ISSN:
      An apparatus for exploring the atmosphere of a planet such as Venus, at a specific altitude, was patented this week for a French agency, the Office Nationale d'Etudes et de Recherche Aerospatiales.
  3. (collective) An assortment of tools and instruments.
    Synonyms: tools, gear, equipment
    • 1786, John Jeffries, Jean-Pierre Blanchard, A narrative of the two aerial Voyages of Dr. J. with Mons. Blanchard: with meteorological observations and remarks.‎[6], page 45:
      We immediately threw out all the little things we had with us, ſuch as biſcuits, apples, &c. and after that one of our oars or wings; but ſtill deſcending, we caſt away the other wing, and then the governail ; having likewiſe had the precaution, for fear of accidents, while the Balloon was filling, partly to looſen and make it go eaſy, I now ſucceeded in attempting to reach without the Car, and unſcrewing the moulinet, with all its apparatus; I likewiſe caſt that into the ſea.
  4. A bureaucratic organization, especially one influenced by political patronage.
    Synonym: machine
    • 2006 April 3, David Walker, “Beyond her imagination”, in The Guardian‎[7]:
      In English fiction—that is to say British fiction in the English language tradition—it is a subtle question because we dislike thinking abstractly and conceptualisation of government, where it exists, is vague and confused. Take bishops: they sat as legislators and so were part of the governing apparatus.
  5. (firefighting) A vehicle used for emergency response.
  6. (gymnastics) Any of the equipment on which the gymnasts perform their movements.
    Hyponyms: parallel bars, uneven bars, vault, floor, pommel horse
  7. (video games) A complex, highly modified weapon (typically not a firearm); a weaponized “Rube Goldberg machine.”

Usage notes

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The word is occasionally used as an invariant plural, as in look at all of those apparatus, maintaining the Latin inflection in English on a loanword basis. But because the word also has a mass noun sense in English and it often appears in such a way that its number (singular or plural) is disguised by absence of any inflectional or lexical signals as to which of these two senses pertained in the mind of the writer, readers may parse it in either sense. Thus in the phrase he was dazzled by the electronic apparatus scattered throughout the room, either parsing works, and the reader cannot tell which one the writer had in mind, although that slight ambiguity is unimportant to the point being made.

Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Latin

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Etymology

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Perfect passive participle of apparō (“prepare”).

Pronunciation

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Participle

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apparātus (feminine apparāta, neuter apparātum, comparative apparātior, superlative apparātissimus); first/second-declension participle

  1. prepared, ready, having been prepared
  2. supplied, furnished, having been supplied
  3. magnificent, sumptuous, elaborate

Declension

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First/second-declension adjective.

singular plural
masculine feminine neuter masculine feminine neuter
nominative apparātus apparāta apparātum apparātī apparātae apparāta
genitive apparātī apparātae apparātī apparātōrum apparātārum apparātōrum
dative apparātō apparātae apparātō apparātīs
accusative apparātum apparātam apparātum apparātōs apparātās apparāta
ablative apparātō apparātā apparātō apparātīs
vocative apparāte apparāta apparātum apparātī apparātae apparāta

Noun

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apparātus m (genitive apparātūs); fourth declension

  1. preparation, a getting ready
  2. A providing
  3. tools, implements, instruments, engines
  4. supplies, material
  5. magnificence, splendor, pomp
    Synonym: magnificentia

Declension

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Fourth-declension noun.

singular plural
nominative apparātus apparātūs
genitive apparātūs apparātuum
dative apparātuī apparātibus
accusative apparātum apparātūs
ablative apparātū apparātibus
vocative apparātus apparātūs

Descendants

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References

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  • “apparatus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “apparatus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • apparatus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
  • apparatus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎[8], London: Macmillan and Co.
    • to entertain, regale a person: accipere aliquem (bene, copiose, laute, eleganter, regio apparatu, apparatis epulis)
    • preparations for war; war-material: apparatus (rare in plur.) belli
  • apparatus in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎[9], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
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