apparatus

Borrowed from Latin apparātus.

• (UK, US, General South African, India)
  • IPA^(key): /æ.pəˈɹeɪ.təs/
  • Rhymes: -eɪ.təs
• (US, Canada, Philippine)
  • IPA^(key): /æ.pəˈɹæ.təs/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

  • Rhymes: -ætəs
• (UK, General Australian, General New Zealand, General South African, Jamaica)
  • IPA^(key): /æpəˈɹɑːtəs/
  • Rhymes: -ɑːtəs

apparatus (plural apparatuses or apparatus)

1. The entirety of means whereby a specific production is made existent or task accomplished.
   • 2017 August 20, “The Observer view on the attacks in Spain”, in The Observer‎:

     Many jihadist plots have been foiled and the security apparatus is getting better, overall, at pre-empting those who would do us ill. But, they say, the nature of the threat and the terrorists’ increasing use of low-tech, asymmetrical tactics such as hire vehicles and knives, make it all but impossible to stop every assault.

2. A complex machine or instrument.
3. An assortment of tools and instruments.
   • 1786, John Jeffries; Jean-Pierre Blanchard, A narrative of the two aerial Voyages of Dr. J. with Mons. Blanchard: with meteorological observations and remarks.‎, page 45:

     We immediately threw out all the little things we had with us, ſuch as biſcuits, apples, &c. and after that one of our oars or wings; but ſtill deſcending, we caſt away the other wing, and then the governail ; having likewiſe had the precaution, for fear of accidents, while the Balloon was filling, partly to looſen and make it go eaſy, I now ſucceeded in attempting to reach without the Car, and unſcrewing the moulinet, with all its apparatus; I likewiſe caſt that into the ſea.

4. A bureaucratic organization, especially one influenced by political patronage.
5. (firefighting) A vehicle used for emergency response.
6. (gymnastics) Any of the equipment on which the gymnasts perform their movements.

The word is occasionally used as an invariant plural, as in look at all of those apparatus, maintaining the Latin inflection in English on a loanword basis. But because the word also has a mass noun sense in English and it often appears in such a way that its number (singular or plural) is disguised by absence of any inflectional or lexical signals as to which of these two senses pertained in the mind of the writer, readers may parse it in either sense. Thus in the phrase he was dazzled by the electronic apparatus scattered throughout the room, either parsing works, and the reader cannot tell which one the writer had in mind, although that slight ambiguity is unimportant to the point being made.

• (entirety of means): setup, mechanism, dynamic
• (complex machine): instrument, machinery, device
• (assortment of tools): tools, gear, equipment
• (political patronage organization): machine

• (gymnastics): parallel bars, uneven bars, vault, floor, pommel horse, rings aka still rings, horizontal bar aka high bar, balance beam

• apparat

Perfect passive participle of apparō (“prepare”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ap.paˈraː.tus/, [ap.paˈraː.tʊs]

apparātus m (feminine apparāta, neuter apparātum); first/second declension

1. prepared, ready, having been prepared
2. supplied, furnished, having been supplied
3. magnificent, sumptuous, elaborate

First/second declension.

• comparative: apparātior, superlative: apparātissimus

apparātus m (genitive apparātūs); fourth declension

1. preparation, a getting ready
2. A providing
3. tools, implements, instruments, engines
4. supplies, material
5. magnificence, splendor, pomp
6. vocative singular of apparātus

apparātūs m

1. genitive singular of apparātus
2. nominative plural of apparātus
3. accusative plural of apparātus
4. vocative plural of apparātus

Fourth declension.

• apparatus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• apparatus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• apparatus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• apparatus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to entertain, regale a person: accipere aliquem (bene, copiose, laute, eleganter, regio apparatu, apparatis epulis)
    
  • preparations for war; war-material: apparatus (rare in plur.) belli
    
• apparatus in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎, pre-publication website, 2005-2016