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Treat Verb & noun
Independent on Sunday, The, Jul 1, 2007 by Nicholas Bagnall
Timothy Garton Ash, in So Paulo for The Guardian, says it treats its poor like dirt. True enough. But it's a versatile word. Take "like dirt" away and you imagine the glasses filled and plates piled high, or make it a noun and they're stuffed with free goodies. Or it can be altogether neutral, as when we treat with another nation, with any luck ending with a treaty.
The earliest meaning was to bargain or negotiate and it seems to have come from the Latin tractare meaning, among other things, to manage. I dare say traditionalists are disgusted with its adverbial use, as in "she played tennis a treat", but why shouldn't she? It merely means we enjoyed watching her.
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