Today's Word

Yesterday's Word

Archives

FAQ

Discuss
Email this
Feedback
RSS/XML
Permalink

A.Word.A.Day--sessile

This week's theme: Miscellaneous words

sessile (SES-il) adjective

1. Attached directly to the base, without a stalk (as a leaf or a flower).
2. Permanently attached; immobile (as an animal, for example a barnacle).

[From Latin sessilis (relating to sitting), from sedere (to sit). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sed- (to sit) that is also the source of sit, chair, saddle, soot, sediment, cathedral, and tetrahedron.]

"The history of seating is a serious subject... several books pay tribute to what might be called great moments in modern chair history... here is the bottom line on them. The archdruid, or should I say the chairman, of the sessile sect is Alexander von Vegesack, the director of the Vitra Design Museum, the major collection of modern chairs extant."
Raymond Sokolov; Staying Put; The Wall Street Journal (New York); Dec 4, 1997.

See more usage examples of sessile in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

X-Bonus