Word: functional
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...major factor in the success of last week's transplant was the drug Cyclosporin A, an immunosuppressant whose function is to reduce the chances that the patients body will reject the donor organ...
...whose function remains a mystery to many, is the center for the technology network spreading across campus. The office provides three areas of service: computing and selling "computer time," video and telecommunications, and "office automation...
...function of the computing unit, the largest of the three branches, with over 100 employees, is "selling" computer time on highly advanced computer programs...
Indeed, concern for function over form is advisable. The federal gravy train is slowing down. The Reagan Administration, which is cool to mass transit, initially declared a ban on funding for new rail systems and sought to phase out operating assistance by 1985. Pork-barrel-hungry Congressmen, however, objected to both moves. With the passage of the 5?-per-gal. gasoline tax, and its one penny for mass transit, the Administration agreed to lift the ban. But Reagan did persuade Congress to whittle operating subsidies by 21%, and in this fiscal year alone won an overall $400 million...
...original meaning has faded, and Webster's now defines depopulate only as "to reduce greatly the population of." Even that is probably too clear and specific. When Goodman uses the word not as something done to an area but as something done to the victims, then its only function is to be long and Latinate and abstract. That makes it suitable as a euphemism for a blunter word, like kill...