Word of the Day

: May 9, 2007

prehensile

adjective pre-HEN-sil

What It Means

1 : adapted for seizing or grasping especially by wrapping around

2 : gifted with mental grasp or moral or aesthetic perception

prehensile in Context

Using his prehensile tail, the monkey was able to seize the pen right out of my hand!

Did You Know?

You may be familiar with "prehensile" from the animal world: monkeys have prehensile tails, elephants have prehensile trunks, giraffes have prehensile tongues, etc. But can you comprehend where this word comes from? Can you apprehend its derivation? The Latin verb "prehendere," meaning "to seize or grasp," is the ancestor of a number of English terms, including "comprehend," "apprehend," and "prehensile." "Prehensile" came into English in the 1780s via French "préhensile," from Latin "prehensus," the past participle of "prehendere."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.