To create something entirely new that has never existed before, or to make up a story or excuse.
From Latin 'invenire,' meaning 'to come upon' or 'to discover.' The prefix 'in-' means 'into' and 'venire' means 'to come,' so literally it meant 'to come into' something new.
The word 'invent' originally just meant 'to find' or 'to discover,' but over time it shifted to mean 'to create'—this shows how the word itself evolved, just like the technologies that inventors create.
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