AGNOSTIC

PRONUNCIATION: (ag-NOS-tik)

MEANING: noun: 1. One who believes that the existence of god is unknown or unknowable.
2. One who is noncommittal about something.
adjective: 1. Believing that the existence of god is unknown or unknowable.
2. Noncommittal.
3. Compatible with many platforms: not limited to a particular software, technology, etc.

ETYMOLOGY: Coined by the biologist Thomas Henry Huxley in 1869. From Greek a- (not) + gnosis (knowledge). Ultimately from the Indo-European root gno- (to know), which also gave us knowledge, prognosis, ignore, narrate, normal, know, can, notorious, notice, connoisseur, recognize, diagnosis, ignore, annotate, noble, narrate, anagnorisis (the moment of recognition), prosopagnosia (inability to recognize faces), and gnomon (raised arm of a sundial). Earliest documented use: 1869.
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AGRO-STIC - a primitive plow

Ag-NOSIC - I know there's silver in this mine; I can just smell it!

WAGNOSTIC - eschew the philosophy of Theodore Roosevelt; correlate of "Speak loudly!"