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1947, Primo Levi, “Storia di dieci giorni”, in Se questo è un uomo [If This Is a Man], Torino: Einaudi, published 1987, →ISBN, page 190:
Grazie alla mia ormai lunga esperienza delle cose del campo; ero riuscito a portare con me le mie cose personali: una cintura di fili elettrici intrecciati; il cucchiaio-coltello; un ago con tre gugliate; cinque bottoni; e infine, diciotto pietrine per acciarino che avevo rubato in Laboratoria.
Thanks to my by now long experience with camp-related matters; I was able to bring with me my personal items: a belt made of braided electrical wires; the spoon-knife; a needle with three threads; five buttons; and lastly, eighteen flints for the lighter that I robbed from the Laboratory.
Alfred W. Tobler (1987) Dicionário Crioulo Karipúna/Português Português/Crioulo Karípúna (in Karipúna Creole French), Summer Institute of Linguistics, page 43
Late 4th century, Jerome [et al.], transl., edited by Roger Gryson, Biblia Sacra: Iuxta Vulgatam Versionem (Vulgate), 5th edition, Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, published 2007, →ISBN, II Paralipomenon [2 Chronicles] 32:7:
viriliter agite et confortamini nolite timere nec paveatis regem Assyriorum […]
"Act strongly and be courageous. Do not fear nor tremble before the king of Assyria"
...doces illum quid sano faciendum sit, non efficis sanum. Pauperi ut agat divitem monstras: hoc quomodo manente paupertate fieri potest?
...you teach a man what a healthy man should do, but you don't make him healthy. You show the poor how to behave as a rich man: but if they remain poor, how can they do so?
Nihil agis, nihil moliris, nihil cogitas quod non ego non modo audiam sed etiam videam planeque sentiam.
You do nothing, you plan nothing, you think of nothing which I not only do not hear, but which I do not see and know every particular of.
[1865, Ausonii Popmae frisii de differentiis verborum cum additamentis ab Hekelii, Richteri, Messerschmidii et Vallaurii
Agere, Facere et Gerere hoc differunt, quod agere et corporis, et vocis, et mentis agitatum comprehendit. Facere tantum refertur ad opera, quae corpore efficimus; aliquando et pro consentire ponitur. His enim loquendi modis utebantur recte antiqui: mecum seu tecum faciam, hoc est, mecum seu tecum consentiam. Gerere est muneris et oneris...]
to make(something that does not continue to exist after the maker stops)
ingentis parturit ira minas. / Quo feret ira, sequar! facti fortasse pigebit — / Et piget infido consuluisse viro. / Viderit ista deus, qui nunc mea pectora versat! / Nescio quid certe mens mea maius agit!
Tremndous anger abounds with threat. / I’ll follow where anger carries me. Perhaps I’ll regret my deeds: / I regret having given thought to the interests of an unfaithful husband. / Let the god see to that, which churns within my heart. / Assuredly, I don't know what occupies my mind more greatly!
to aim at, to get at (generally in the subjunctive mood and preceded by ut, and so meaning: "that to might achieve...")
According to Döderlein, another difference between ago and facio when they mean "make" is that ago typically has to do with making something that does not continue after the "actor" stops doing the action; whereas with facio, the object continues to exist after the maker has made the thing. In other words, ago is temporal, whereas facio is spatial.
“ago”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“ago”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
ago in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
to take root: radices agere (De Off. 2. 12. 73)
to bud, blossom: gemmas agere
to live (all) one's life (honourably, in the country, as a man of learning): vitam, aetatem (omnem aetatem, omne aetatis tempus) agere (honeste, ruri, in litteris), degere, traducere
I am in my thirteenth year: tertium decimum annum ago
to be at one's last gasp: animam agere
so-and-so is in a very satisfactory position; prospers: agitur praeclare, bene cum aliquo
to be ruined, undone: praecipitem agi, ire
a man's life is at stake, is in very great danger: salus, caput, vita alicuius agitur, periclitatur, in discrimine est or versatur
to thank a person (in words): gratias alicui agere pro aliqua re
to give thanks to heaven: grates agere (dis immortalibus)
(ambiguous) to have all one's trouble for nothing: rem actam or simply actum agere (proverb.)
to be occupied with business, busy: negotia agere, gerere
to pass one's life in luxury and idleness: per luxum et ignaviam aetatem agere
to be inattentive: alias res or aliud agere
to devote one's life to science, study: aetatem in litteris ducere, agere
the point at issue: id, de quo agitur or id quod cadit in controversiam
to recite a poem, line with appropriate action: carmen, versum agere
to act a play (said of the actors): fabulam agere
to play the part of some one: partes agere alicuius
to act the rôle of a slave, pander: agere servum, lenonem
to represent a thing dramatically: sic exponere aliquid, quasi agatur res (non quasi narretur)
to gesticulate: gestum (always in the sing.) agere
the question now is..: nunc id quaeritur, agitur
to be now jesting, now in earnest: ioca et seria agere
the book treats of friendship: hic liber est de amicitia (not agit) or hoc libro agitur de am.
to act reasonably, judiciously: prudenter, considerate, consilio agere (opp. temere, nullo consilio, nulla ratione)
to be moderate in all things, commit no excess: omnia modice agere
to have no principles: omnia temere agere, nullo iudicio uti
to thank, glorify the immortal gods: grates, laudes agere dis immortalibus
to keep, celebrate a festival: diem festum agere (of an individual)
to take the auspices, observe the flight of birds: augurium agere,auspicari (N. D. 2. 4. 11)
the house walls are beginning to crack: domus rimas agit
to live a lonely life: vitam solitariam agere
how are you: quid agis?
what is going on? how are you getting on: quid agitur? quid fit?
to lay the foundations: fundamenta iacere, agere
to drive to pasture: pastum agere
to submit a formal proposition to the people: agere cum populo (Leg. 3. 4. 10)
the aristocracy (as a party in politics): boni cives, optimi, optimates, also simply boni (opp. improbi); illi, qui optimatium causam agunt
to be a leading spirit of the popular cause: populi causam agere
to play the demagogue: populariter agere
to hold the census: censum habere, agere (Liv. 3. 22)
to perform the censors' duties: censuram agere, gerere
to go to law with a person: (ex) iure, lege agere cum aliquo
to proceed against some one with the utmost rigour of the law; to strain the law in one's favour: summo iure agere cum aliquo (cf. summum ius, summa iniuria)
to convene the assizes (used of a provincial governor): conventus agere (B. G. 1. 54)
to conduct a person's case (said of an agent, solicitor): causam alicuius agere (apud iudicem)
a person's life is in jeopardy: caput alicuius agitur (vid. sect. V. 8)
to crucify: in crucem agere, tollere aliquem
to set the army in motion: agmen agere
to mount guard in the camp: vigilias agere in castris (Verr. 4. 43)
to keep watch on the rampart: custodias agere in vallo
to be on duty before the gates: stationes agere pro portis
to carry off booty: ferre atque agerepraedam
to advance pent-houses, mantlets: vineas agere (B. G. 3. 21)
to make mines, subterraneous passages: cuniculos agere (B. G. 3. 21)
to drive the enemy before one: prae se agere hostem
to triumph over some one: triumphumagere de or ex aliquo or c. Gen. (victoriae, pugnae)
to treat with some one about peace: agere cum aliquo de pace
to row: navem remis agere or propellere
(ambiguous) I'm undone! it's all up with me: perii! actum est de me! (Ter. Ad. 3. 2. 26)
(ambiguous) to have all one's trouble for nothing: rem actam or simply actum agere (proverb.)
(ambiguous) it's all over with me; I'm a lost man: actum est de me
Tyron, Darell (1994) “Oceanic plant names”, in A.K. Pawley and M.D. Ross, editors, Austronesian Terminologies: Continuity and Change, Caberra, Australia: Australian National University, →ISBN, page 493