OBVIATE (Illustrated)

CACOPHONY (SAT)

n. A disagreeable, harsh, or discordant sound or combination of sounds or tones.

"The brass band played too loudly and out of tune. They raised such a cacophony that I thought I would go deaf."

"The brass band played too loudly and out of tune. They raised such a terrible noise that I thought I would go deaf."

"The brass band played too loudly and out of tune. It was cacophonous."

This word has two roots from Greek that are important and found in other words. The root "caco-" means "bad." The other part of the word "phon" means sound (like telephone). The antonym (opposite) of cacophony, "euphony," means "soothing, pleasant sound." Here we see the root "phon" ("sound") and the prefix "eu," which means "good." (as in eulogy, "good speech" or the name Eugene "well born").

Now this brings us to another interesting distinction. Does this mean that the word "phony" has something to do with sound? Not necessarily. According to The Free Dictionary the word "phony" comes from the Old Irish word fainne (fawney), which is a gilt brass ring used by swindlers. Its easy to confuse the meaning of words by assuming that words that have similar sounding roots have the same root meaning. Watch out for this! Otherwise you might not understand what someone means when they tell you that Eugene's cacophonous eulogy was just too phony to be euphonious!

Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus: cacophony

OBVIATE (SAT)

This is my first shot at a real post. I hope it obviates the need to further explain the meaning of the word 'obviate.'

v. to make unnecessary, to clear away, to overcome

"Having a cell phone obviates the need for a house phone."

"Having a cell phone eliminates the need for a house phone."

"Having a cell phone makes having a house phone unnecessary."

Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus: obviate

The meaning of the word 'obviate' should not be confused with the word 'obvious,' although they have a root in common. If you break the word down you have 'ob,' a particle, which often means "in the way" from Latin, as well as the word "via," which means "way." So, something that is obvious could be something that is in your way, something that you can't ignore. To obviate something is to remove something that is in your way. In this sense, one would obviate something obvious by getting it out of the way.