agere

Agere is a Latin verb meaning to do, act, drive, or lead; it underlies numerous Latin expressions and many English derivatives such as act, action, active, and agency. The standard lexical entry is given by the four principal parts: ago, agere, egi, actum. The infinitive agere denotes the action itself, while actum is the supine used in certain constructions.

It is a third-conjugation verb. The present active indicative forms are: ago, agis, agit, agimus, agitis, agunt. The imperfect is agebam, agebas, agebat, agebamus, agebatis, agebant; the future is agam, ages, aget, agemus, agetis, agent. The perfect active forms are egi, egisti, egit, egimus, egistis, egērunt. The present passive is agor, ageris, agitur, agimur, agimini, aguntur. The supine is actum and the perfect passive participle is actus; the present participle is agens.

Usage: agere expresses action, execution, or conduct. It takes direct objects to denote performing something (agere aliquid) and appears in many idioms describing the management of affairs, the conduct of business, or executing tasks. In philosophical and legal Latin, agere is often used with phrases meaning to act or to conduct oneself.

Derivatives and related forms: The verb yields numerous English derivatives: act, action, active, actor, agency, agenda. In Latin, the gerundive form agendum gave the noun agenda in Medieval Latin, meaning things to be done and later the English term agenda.

Significance: As a fundamental Latin verb, agere is central to the vocabulary of Roman literature, rhetoric, law, and philosophy, and it provides a common root for many words describing action and agency in Romance and English.