the meaning of accommodate

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chance22

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In a passage about the glorious messiness of English, it is said that "Since the Renaissance spurred a scientific revolution, English had to accommodate it. New discoveries needed new descriptions, creating words like atmosphere, pneumonia and skeleton."
I'm not quite clear about the meaning of accommodate here. First I think it means to change so that you're able to deal with it. Then I think it's unlikely, because in this sense, maybe the sentence should be written in this way: English had to accommodate itself to it.
So could you explain to me the exact meaning of accommodate in the original sentence? Thank you.
 
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MikeNewYork

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In a passage about the glorious messiness of English, it is said that "Since the Renaissance spurred a scientific revolution, English had to accommodate it. New discoveries needed new descriptions, creating words like atmosphere, pneumonia and skeleton."
I'm not quite clear about the meaning of accommodate here. First I think it means to change so that you're able to deal with it. Then I think it's unlikely, because in this sense, maybe the sentence should be written in this way: English had to accommodate itself to it.
So could you explain to me the exact meaning of accommodate in the original sentence? Thank you.

I don't think the meaning is that difficult to understand. Have you checked out definitions?

See here: accommodate - definition of accommodate by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.
 

chance22

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MikeNewYork

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Many definitions seem likely to me. I can interpret it as "consider", or "reconcile" , but I can't decide for sure which one fits best

English had to adapt to it.
 

chance22

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English had to adapt to it.
At first,I just interpreted it in this way,but then when I look it up in the dictionary,I find a problem: the word is used like adapt as a transitive verb, accommodate oneself to something. Is it OK to just use "accommodate it" instead of "accommodate itself to it"?
This is what really confuses me.
 

MikeNewYork

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At first,I just interpreted it in this way,but then when I look it up in the dictionary,I find a problem: the word is used like adapt as a transitive verb, accommodate oneself to something. Is it OK to just use "accommodate it" instead of "accommodate itself to it"?
This is what really confuses me.

The transitive use of "accommodate" is fine.
 
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