PRONUNCIATION:
(kuhn-STROO)
MEANING:
verb tr., intr.: To interpret, understand, analyze, or explain.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin construere (to construct), from con- (with) + struere (to pile up or arrange). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ster- (to spread), which also gave us structure, industry, destroy, street, stratagem, stratum, stratocracy, and Russian perestroika. Earliest documented use: 1362.
USAGE:
“But men may construe things after their fashion, clean from the purpose of the things themselves.”William Shakespeare; Julius Caesar; 1623.
