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Ha·vel

(hävəl), Václav 1936-2011.

Czech writer and politician. A widely known playwright whose works include The Garden Party (1963) and The Increased Difficulty of Concentration (1968), Havel became a civil rights leader after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968). He was elected president of Czechoslovakia in 1989 after the collapse of the Communist government, but resigned in 1992. He served as president of the newly formed Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003.

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Václav Havel

photographed in 2006

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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