Today's Word "Compossible"
Published in Vocabulary
compossible \kehm-PAH-seh-behl\ (adjective) - Capable of coexistence with something else, possible in coexistence with something else, compatible.
"Jason indicated that the facts from the crime scene were compossible with only one interpretation of the crime."
Today's word comes from Latin "compossibil-is" based on con "with, together" + "possibilis," an adjective from posse "can, to be able." The original root was Proto-Indo-European poti- "powerful, lord" which we find in Latin potis "powerful, able" from "possum, posse, potui," whose various forms can be seen lurking in today's word, "potent," and "potential." The PIE compound dem-s-poti- "house-master" became Greek despotes "master, lord" and our "despot." By the way, that root dem- is the same root we see in Latin domus "house" (Russian dom "house") and our words "dome," "dominate," "domino."
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