Pedes

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /piːdz/

Definitions

1. Referring to the plural form of a Latin-derived term meaning feet or foot soldiers in historical or military contexts ; denoting the lower limbs on which a person or animal stands and moves ; identifying infantry troops as the foot soldiers within an army
2. Used to describe the plural of a unit of measure related to feet or the soldiers who fight on foot in ancient or classical settings ; indicating the plural body parts used for walking and running in humans and animals ; signifying foot soldiers distinguished from mounted or aerial forces in military classifications
3. Representing multiple footmembers of creatures or humans ; relating to ground-based troops as opposed to cavalry or other military divisions ; measuring lengths as multiples of a foot unit derived from Latin origins

Etymology: "Pedes" is the Latin plural of "pes," meaning "foot," and it survives in English mainly as a technical term. The root is ancient and widely shared: "pes" descends from a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form for "foot," and its cognates include Greek "pous" (as in "octopus," "eight-footed") and the English word "foot" itself, related through the same ancestor. English borrowed the Latin plural directly, so the word appears as a form in its own right rather than as a standalone everyday noun. The plural form has a specialized role in English. Military writers used "pedes" for infantry, the soldiers who fought on foot, as opposed to cavalry on horseback. Measurement writers used it for the Latin unit "pes" when describing lengths in multiples of a foot. Zoologists and anatomists, working from the same Latin vocabulary, use it to count the feet of an animal or a person, so the term has stayed in scientific and scholarly use while fading from ordinary speech.

Synonyms: feet, base