indagate

Pronounced: IN-duh-gate, verb

Notes: I’m a little surprised that I’ve not heard this word

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Yesterday’s word

The word hypercathexis means “excessive concentration of mental energy on something”

First usage

A relatively recent word, coming into English in the 1920s

Background / Comments

I have experienced hypercathexis – sometimes at work, but also dealing with proxy voting; usually because the information about the directors is pretty vague and high-level and it needs a lot of concentration to try to figure out who would be a good person to vote for and who would not. It’s similar when trying to determine whom to vote for, because there is so little information about the more minor offices being sought. In addition, of course, there are work situations that are complex and need this kind of excessive concentration. Our word comes from Greek words: hyper- (over; above) and kathexis (holding) – this word came from katekhein (to hold fast), which came from kata- (an intensifying prefix) and ekhein (to hold)