English
forcipal
Forcipal comes from Latin forceps ‘tongs, pincers, forceps’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEforcepsas forcipis‘tongs, pincers, forceps’
- Englishearliest quotation 1658forcipal
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEforcepsas forcipis‘tongs, pincers, forceps’
- Englishearliest quotation 1658forcipal
Earliest quotation: 1658, Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus. […]. Chapter II.: “Mechanicks make uſe hereof in forcipall Organs, and Inſtruments…”
Formed from forcipis + -al
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰer- ‘warm, hot’
warm, thermal, furnace, gore, gory, thermos, garlick, 17 more
through Latin forceps ‘tongs, pincers, forceps’
Today it means
adj Branched and forked like a pair of forceps; constructed so as to open and shut.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin forceps / forcipal