THE ETYMOLOGY NERD
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Infographics
  • Videos
  • MORE
    • Cartoons
    • Retail Reviews
    • Resources
    • About
    • Accomplishments

PERTAINING TO FLOCKS

12/27/2020

0 Comments

 
Today, I mostly associate the word gregarious with outgoing people, but when it was first borrowed into the English language in a 1668 essay, it was a biological term used to describe animals that live in flocks (this is still used in zoology, and, in botany, it refers to plants that grow in clusters). It comes from Latin gregarious, meaning "of or pertaining to flocks". This was the adjectival form of grex, the word for "flock" or "herd", and that finally derives from the Proto-Indo-European reconstruction hger, meaning "assemble" or "gather". Grex is also the etymon of the words aggregate ("to collect the flock"), congregate ("with the flock"), segregate ("apart from the flock"), and egregious ("out of the flock"); the latter might shed some insight into why it's so commonly confused with gregarious.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    AUTHOR

    Picture
    Hello! I'm Adam Aleksic, a sophomore studying government and linguistics at Harvard University, where I co-founded the Harvard Undergraduate Linguistics Society. In addition to etymology, I also really enjoy politics, vexillology, geography, board games, conlanging, and law. 
      If I don't cover it soon, I probably already did it
    Submit
    CONFUSED?
      

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016

    Categories

    All
    Interview
    Satire

Picture

A lexophile's sanctum

CONTACT: etymologynerd@gmail.com
TWITTER • INSTAGRAM • YOUTUBE • REDDIT • LINKEDIN •RSS
Home • Blog • Infographics • Retail Reviews • Cartoons • Clarifications • Resources • Accomplishments
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Infographics
  • Videos
  • MORE
    • Cartoons
    • Retail Reviews
    • Resources
    • About
    • Accomplishments