apparatus

English Online Dictionary. What means apparatus‎? What does apparatus mean?

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin apparātus. Doublet of apparat.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US, General South African, India)
  • IPA^(key): /æp.əˈɹeɪ.təs/
  • Rhymes: -eɪtəs
• (US, Canada, Philippines)
  • IPA^(key): /æp.əˈɹæt.əs/
  • Rhymes: -ætəs
• (UK, General Australian, New Zealand, General South African, Jamaica)
  • IPA^(key): /æp.əˈɹɑː.təs/
  • Rhymes: -ɑːtəs

Noun

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
2. A complex machine or instrument.

   Synonyms: device, instrument, machinery
3. (collective) An assortment of tools and instruments.

   Synonyms: tools, gear, equipment
4. A bureaucratic organization, especially one influenced by political patronage.

   Synonym: machine
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

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

Related terms

• apparat

Translations

Latin

Etymology

Perfect passive participle of apparō (“prepare”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ap.paˈraː.tus/, [äpːäˈräːt̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ap.paˈra.tus/, [äpːäˈräːt̪us]

Participle

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

First/second-declension adjective.

Noun

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

Fourth-declension noun.

Descendants

References

• “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.
• 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