To remove or take out something from a larger whole, or the substance that has been removed. In academic contexts, it often refers to selecting relevant information from texts or obtaining essential components from materials.
From Latin extractus, past participle of extrahere meaning 'to draw out' (ex- 'out' + trahere 'to draw'). The word evolved from physical removal to abstract concepts like extracting meaning or data.
The word 'extract' creates a beautiful metaphor for academic work - scholars are essentially miners, drawing precious insights from the raw ore of information. What's fascinating is that both the verb and noun forms are spelled identically but pronounced differently, with stress shifting from first to second syllable!
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