The learned Spanish adjective caducifolio means, with respect to a tree or plant, ‘having leaves that fall off in a certain season, typically when the weather turns cold.’ The second part of that long word comes from Latin folium ‘leaf,’ which changed considerably in form (and gender: it was neuter in Latin) on its way to becoming Spanish hoja. The first part of the word is from the Latin verb we discussed last time, cadere ‘to fall,’ so caducifolio means literally ‘[having] leaves [that] fall [off].’ English expresses the idea differently, not mentioning the leaves but still falling back on Latin cadere, or at least a compound of it: from decidere ‘to fall away’ English has deciduous.
In addition to caducifolio, Spanish says ‘deciduous’ in another way, caduco, which clearly incorporates the same root, from Latin caducus ‘inclined to fall, readily falling.’ Beyond its botanical sense, Spanish caduco can mean ‘decrepit; outmoded; perishable.’ Many English speakers will be surprised to learn that their language has the similar-looking adjective caducous; in the words of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, it’s ‘a botanical term for “falling early,” as the sepals of a poppy, before the petals expand.’ Lacking the non-technical senses of Spanish cuduco, English caducous falls into the category of arcane words that language lovers are fond of.
© 2012 Steven Schwartzman
