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prettygoodwordpolyamory (pol-ee-AM-er-ee) - n., the state or practice of having romantic or sexual relationships with multiple partners with the knowledge and consent of all involved.
Okay, so poly- means many rather than specifically large, but that's because operates on discrete rather than continuous sets. It comes from Ancient Greek polús, many, from a PIE root that meant both many and much, so agnostic on the discrete/continuum divide. As for the word, it was formed in 1992* as a derivative of polyamorous, which was coined in 1990 pairing it with Latin amor, love. Other words with poly- include polygamy ("many marriages"), which was used as a pattern for coining polyamory, and polyglot ("[speaking] many languages").
* Interestingly, the first recorded use is the proposal to create the Usenet group alt.polyamory.
Bonus prefix: I wanted to also use super- but it has many meanings other than just large, most related to being either over or above in literal or metaphoric ways. So it's a bonus.
And that wraps up a week of 'large' prefixes. While it's tempting to go onto a week of prefixes that are actually large/long, time to return to the regular mix next week.
---L.
Okay, so poly- means many rather than specifically large, but that's because operates on discrete rather than continuous sets. It comes from Ancient Greek polús, many, from a PIE root that meant both many and much, so agnostic on the discrete/continuum divide. As for the word, it was formed in 1992* as a derivative of polyamorous, which was coined in 1990 pairing it with Latin amor, love. Other words with poly- include polygamy ("many marriages"), which was used as a pattern for coining polyamory, and polyglot ("[speaking] many languages").
* Interestingly, the first recorded use is the proposal to create the Usenet group alt.polyamory.
Bonus prefix: I wanted to also use super- but it has many meanings other than just large, most related to being either over or above in literal or metaphoric ways. So it's a bonus.
And that wraps up a week of 'large' prefixes. While it's tempting to go onto a week of prefixes that are actually large/long, time to return to the regular mix next week.
---L.
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Date: 2025-06-13 03:17 pm (UTC)Those groups spawned a few very descriptive acronyms. PWL was one, poly-while-looking. While it is tempting to assert that this was mostly driven by men, I'm not entirely sure it is true.
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Date: 2025-06-13 04:03 pm (UTC)People. Sigh.
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Date: 2025-06-13 06:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-06-13 06:54 pm (UTC)I’m hazarding a guess that this overlapped with the assumption that “bi” = “threesome waiting to happen”?
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Date: 2025-06-13 07:00 pm (UTC)