Other forms: roots, rooted, rooting
A root is the part of a plant that grows down into the soil, holding the plant up and drinking water. Pull up a dandelion and you get a long pale root; a tree's roots spread wider underground than its branches do above.
Nearly every other use is that picture borrowed. The root of a problem is its real cause, and getting to the root of something means finding it; a plan rooted in experience is fastened to it. Your roots are where your family comes from, and hair and teeth have roots as well. In maths, the square root of 81 is 9; in language, a root is the older word that others grew out of. To take root is to start growing and stay, and to root out is to find something and remove it completely. In American English, to root for a team is to cheer it on.
1nounrootThe part of a plant that grows underground, holding it in place and taking in water.
“The roots had lifted and cracked the paving stones.”
2nouncauseThe cause or origin of something.
“Money worries were at the root of every argument they had.”
3nounfamilyThe family and place a person comes from (plural).
“He went back to Cork to look for his roots.”
4nounmathsIn maths, a number that produces a given number when multiplied by itself a stated number of times.
“The square root of 81 is 9.”
5verbsearchTo search for something by pushing things about.
“He rooted around in the drawer for a spare battery.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
root is a part of a plant.
Also accepted in games: roots
Root is a Norse import. Late Old English took rōt from Old Norse rót, from Proto-Germanic *wrōts and Proto-Indo-European *wréh₂ds, every step of it meaning root. The same ancient word gives Latin radix, and through it radish — a vegetable that is nothing but a root — as well as the old English wort that hides in plant names.
Proto-Indo-European
*wréh₂ds — root
Proto-Germanic
*wrōts — root
Old Norse
rót — root
Old English
rōt
Middle English
rote
English, today
root
Built from
From Middle English rote, root, roote (“the underground part of a plant”), from late Old English rōt, from Old Norse rót (“root”), from Proto-Germanic wrōts (“root”), from Proto-Indo-European wréh₂ds (“root”); a doublet of wort and radish and radix. Cognate with Scots ruit, rute (“root”), Danish rod (“root”), Faroese and Icelandic rót (“root”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish rot (“root”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA