Etymology Word of the Week – As some of you know, in addition to working in the Admissions Office, I also teach Latin at Saint Ignatius and am something of a "word nerd." Thus, each week, I’ll sneak a vocabulary word (sometimes derived from Latin, sometimes not) into the e-blast. Here then is this week’s edition of the Etymology Word of the Week.
Platypus
Definition: “Semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal with webbed feet, a beaver-like tail, and a duck-like bill.”
Origin/Derivation: From the Greek words platys meaning “flat, broad” (plateau also comes from this root) and pous meaning “foot”.
Interesting Related Words: Oedipus, a character from Mythology whose name literally means “swollen-foot”. Oedipus acquired his name because his ankles were pinned together when he was just a baby. His father, the king of Thebes, left him to die of exposure in the mountains to avoid a prophecy that Oedipus would one day kill his own father. 2500-year-old spoiler alert: baby Oedipus was saved by a neighboring shepherd and did in fact kill his father (albeit unwittingly).
(All information is from www.wikipedia.org, www.etymonline.com and/or www.dictionary.com)
“Old Saw” of the Week:
See if you can “complete the phrase” of this time-worn (but true!) adage:
“Idle hands are..”
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the devil's workshop.”