Word of the Day

: September 19, 2007

fissiparous

adjective fih-SIP-uh-rus

What It Means

: tending to break up into parts : divisive

fissiparous in Context

The reorganization of management can have a fissiparous effect on the rest of the company.

Did You Know?

When it first entered English in the 19th century, "fissiparous" was concerned with reproduction. In biology, a fissiparous organism is one that produces new individuals by fission; that is, by dividing into separate parts, each of which becomes a unique organism. (Most strains of bacteria do this.) "Fissiparous" derives from Latin "fissus," the past participle of "findere" ("to split"), and "parere," meaning "to give birth to" or "to produce." Other "parere" offspring refer to other forms of reproduction, including "oviparous" ("producing eggs that hatch outside the body") and "viviparous" ("producing living young instead of eggs"). By the end of the 19th century "fissiparous" had acquired a figurative meaning, describing something that breaks into parts or causes something else to break into parts.