Misceo

When I first learned the meaning of the word “promiscuous” as “having lots of different sexual partners”, I thought it was the only meaning because the dictionary I was using at the time (the Cambridge Dictionary) didn’t list any other meanings. Today, however, I realized that this word can also be used in a more general sense: “not restricted to one class, sort, or person”.

The “misc” part of this word comes from the Latin “misceō”, meaning “I mix”. Misceō has a lot of descendants: mix, meddle (and medley), miscible (and miscibility), miscellaneous, miscegenation, etc.

“Mix” and “misceō” may seem quite different at first, but there are two things that help us to understand this formation. First, the word “mix” comes from the word “mixed” or “mixt”¹. Second, in Latin, the perfect passive participle of the verb misceō is “mixtus”, which is pretty similar to mixt.

You may have heard of the word “miscible” (or “miscibility”) in the context of chemistry. This word literally means “capable of being mixed” (e.g., water and ethanol are miscible). Miscellaneous is a basic word meaning “of various kinds”. Even if you don’t know the word miscegenation, you can probably guess what it is now (hint: the Latin word “genus” has the meaning of “species, race”).