The word ''exert'' means to apply or exercise influence over something else, either positively or negatively.
The word 'exert' as used in the quotation has to do with the use of language, and essentially how it is expressed to give a particular influence.
<h2>Further Explanation</h2>
The author says, languages exert hidden power, It means that Language always has within its grasp the capacity to express a hidden power if it is properly used, considering the figurative expression used alongside it.
The figurative expression is a simile. With the effusion of ''like'', Rita Mae shows a comparison between how the moon takes on the tides and how languages exert hidden power; thereby leaving the reader to feel and deduce the degree at which the languages exert hidden power.
The moon causes low and high tides. This is done through its gravitational pull. The pull then generates what is known as the tidal force. In turn, the force makes the earth—all its water—to swell on both sides nearest and farthest to the moon. It is these swells of water that are called high tides. That is how the moon exerts its pull.
From the exposition on how the moon exerts its hidden pull, one understands the degree for which languages exert a hidden power if properly used; one understands how and what Rita Mae Brown means by ''exert''.
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KEYWORDS:
- quotation
- rita mae brown
- moon
- tides
- exerts
