radical

1350–1400; Middle English < Late Latin rādīcālis “having roots,” equivalent to Latin rādīc- (stem of rādīx) root¹ + -ālis -al¹

2. Radical, extreme, fanatical denote that which goes beyond moderation or even to excess in opinion, belief, action, etc. Radical emphasizes the idea of going to the root of a matter, and this often seems immoderate in its thoroughness or completeness: radical ideas; radical changes or reforms. Extreme applies to excessively biased ideas, intemperate conduct, or repressive legislation: to use extreme measures. Fanatical is applied to a person who has extravagant views, especially in matters of religion or morality, which render that person incapable of sound judgments; and excessive zeal which leads him or her to take violent action against those who have differing views: fanatical in persecuting others.

Radical comes straight from the Late Latin adjective rādicālis “having roots, rooted,” first occurring about a.d. 400 in Contra Faustum (“Against Faustus the Manichaean”) by St. Augustine of Hippo. Rādicālis is a derivative of the noun rādix (inflectional stem rādīc- ) “root (of a plant, tooth, hair), root (of a family, stock, breed), (etymological) root.” The mathematical sense “denoting the radical sign which indicates the root of a number” dates from the late 17th century. Radical in its political sense dates from the late 18th century in England and the first half of the 19th century in the United States.
Latin rādix comes from wrād-, one of the variants of the Proto-Indo-European root wrād, werād, wred- “root, branch.” From this same variant Latin also has rāmus “branch” (the root, so to speak, of English ramify ); Greek has rhádix (stem rhádik- ) from the same variant. Another variant of the root is the possible source of Greek rhiza, source of English rhizome (Greek variants include Aeolic briza, brisda and Mycenaean wriza ). Wrād- regularly becomes wrōt- in proto-Germanic, the ultimate source of the English word root.