agent: [15] Latin agere, a verb of great semantic breadth (‘drive, lead, act, do’), has been a prolific source of English words. Its past participle, āctus, produced act, action, active, actor, actual, cachet, and exact, while other parts of its paradigm lie behind agile, agitate, ambiguous, coagulate, cogent, cogitate, examine, exigent, exiguous, and prodigal.
Its most obvious offspring, however, are agent (literally ‘(person) doing something’) and agency, formed from the Latin present participial stem agent-. Agere itself is of considerable antiquity, being related to other Indo-European verbs such as Greek ágein ‘drive, lead’, Old Norse aka ‘travel in a vehicle’, and Sanskrit ájati ‘drives’. => act, agile, ambiguous, cachet, cogent, demagogue, exact, examine, prodigal
agent (n.)
late 15c., "one who acts," from Latin agentem (nominative agens) "effective, powerful," present participle of agere "to set in motion, drive, lead, conduct" (see act (n.)). Meaning "any natural force or substance which produces a phenomenon" is from 1550s. Meaning "deputy, representative" is from 1590s. Sense of "spy, secret agent" is attested by 1916.
agent (adj.)
1610s, from agent (n.).
雙語例句
1. The agent spied for East Germany for more than twenty years.
該特工人員為東德做了20多年的間諜。
來自柯林斯例句
2. We went straight to the estate agent and wrote out a cheque.
我們徑直到房地產經紀人那里開了一張支票。
來自柯林斯例句
3. Cheap flights are available from budget travel agent from ￡240.
收費低廉的旅行社可以提供240英鎊起的低價機票。
來自柯林斯例句
4. Remember, the estate agent is working for the vendor.
記住，房地產代理商是為房地產賣方服務的。
來自柯林斯例句
5. My agent told me, "This'll make your name a household word."