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Today's Word "Peccable"

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Published in Vocabulary

peccable /PEK-eh-behl/ (adjective) - Sinful, capable of sin, wrong-doing, or errorimperfect.

"Miss Deeds led a peccable but overall agreeable life."

 

Today's word comes from Latin Latin peccabilis "sinful" from peccare "to stumble, sin." "Peccare" comes from a Proto-Indo-European construction *ped-ko, based on the root *ped-, which became Latin pes, pedis "foot," found in English "pedal," "pedestrian," and "impede" from Latin impedire "to hobble." In Russian the root emerged as pod "under," in Sanskrit as padam "footstep" and pat "foot, and in Greek as pous, pod- "foot," which we find in the eight-footed "octopus," the flat-footed "platypus," not to mention the three-footed "tripod." As we would expect, in English the [p] becomes [f] and the [d], [t], giving us "foot" and, with a lock of hair, "fetlock."


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