• 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.