Participacioun

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The act of taking part in or sharing an activity, event, or experience with others
2. Joining with others to have a share in an undertaking, a benefit, or a common experience
3. Having a portion in something alongside other people, often as an archaic or older spelling

Etymology: Middle English "participacioun" is the spelling of a word that English borrowed from Latin "participatio", meaning "a sharing" or "partaking", formed from "particeps" ("having a part", from "pars", "part", plus "capere", "to take"). The Latin root gives the word its core sense: to take a part of something alongside others. English used the word in the Middle English period, when Chaucer's contemporaries drew on Latin and French vocabulary for religious and philosophical ideas. Its earliest English uses were tied to the idea of sharing in something larger, such as partaking in the divine or in a common good, and this sense of joining in a shared whole gave the word its meaning as the act of joining. The modern English form "participation" replaced the older spelling, which kept the Latin ending "-cioun" in the French-influenced manner of the period. The word is now common in ordinary use, from taking part in a meeting to sharing in a community.