• sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zipEnglish
    1·
    16 days ago

    Sorry to rain on the parade… but ya’ll know that the prefix indicating something pertains to the foot or ankle is pod-, right?

    Podiatry. Podiatrist.

    Ped- refers to children.

    Pediatrician. Pediatrics.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zipEnglish
        1·
        16 days ago

        So I looked into this a bit and…

        it appears to be based on whether a word is using Latin or Greek as its etymological basis, for words pertaining to feet.

        In Latin… it is ped-… but in Greek… it is pod-.

        … And, you are correct, English has a mish mash of both.

        But also, a lot of English words referring to children use the Greek derived ped- or pedo- to refer to… children.

        …Which is why in British English, the spelling ‘paed-’ is used, to minimize this confusion.

        But us clever Americans dropped that, rofl.