Pes

#etymology Published: 2022-01-05

The Latin word for “foot” is pēs (plural pedēs) (in the nominative case). There are so many English descendants derived from this word, so let’s look at some of them.

figuratively feet

The word expedite means “to make something happen more quickly”, which can be considered as “to unfetter”. Expedient¹ and expedition have kind of similar meanings. On the contrary, the words impede and impeach can be interpreted as “to fetter”.

The word pioneer also comes from the same origin, which originally meant “a foot soldier”.

treatment for human feet

• pedicure (cf. manicure)
• podiatry (the branch of medicine that deals with the foot)

with numeral prefix

Some words contain the numeral prefix and usually mean something specific.

• biped² (two-footed animal)
• tripod³⁴ (usually refers to “a three-legged stand for supporting a camera”)
• centipede, millipede

related physically moving feet

• pedal
• pedestrian
• velocipede⁵ (a human-powered land vehicle)

others

The word pedigree⁶ comes from the Old French pié de gru (“foot of a crane”), probably because a pedigree and a foot of a crane are similar in appearance. Cephalopod⁷ is composed of cephalo- (meaning “head”, cf., hydrocephalus) and feet, which explains what cephalopod refers to. Octopus and squid are classified as cephalopods.

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