The Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage - Noel's ESL ...

astrothe
table itself. However square-bracketed numbers, not asterisks, are often
used these days within tables of numbers.
astro- This Greek element meaning “star” is built into a number of words relating
to the sciences of star-watching, both ancient and modern. Some of these words,
like astronomy and astrology, come direct from Greek. Others, like astronaut,
astronavigation, astrophysics and astrosphere, are modern formations. The astrolabe
was a medieval navigating instrument. All these words have retained their scientific
roles—apart from astronomic(al), which doubles as a colloquial word for “skyhigh”.
Like many paired adjectives of this kind, astronomic and astronomical differ little
in meaning. (See -ic/-ical.)
Also related to astro- are asterisk and aster (the flower), where the emphasis is
on the visual shape of stars rather than their uses.
ate See under eat.
-ate A slightly curly question: how would you pronounce the following?
animate articulate designate duplicate graduate moderate separate
syndicate
All those words, and some others ending in -ate, are pronounced in two ways.
The pronunciation depends on the words’ grammatical role—whether they serve
as adjectives, verbs or nouns.
1 Adjectives ending in -ate are pronounced with just one main stress which is early
in the word, either on the first syllable (as in animate), or the second (as in articulate).
They often have a past passive meaning: designate (in the governor designate) means
“having been appointed”, and separate “having been divided off”. Those who know
Latin would recognise that they are clones of the past participle of first conjugation
verbs. These adjectives often provided the stem for the development of verbs in
English, and from those verbs we have a fresh crop of participial adjectives alongside
the older ones. See for example:
animate/animated designate/designated separate/separated
The meaning of the later ones is of course more closely related to the verb. A few
-ate adjectives have no verb counterparts however:
affectionate considerate dispassionate proportionate
2 Verbs ending in -ate are the most common words of this kind. They are
pronounced with two stresses, one early and one on the final syllable, so that it
rhymes with “mate”. Many such verbs date from the fifteenth century, as do all of
the following:
abbreviate consecrate contaminate dedicate equate frustrate inoculate
incorporate mitigate recreate terminate translate
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