• incommodious •
Pronunciation: in-kê-mo-di-ês • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: 1. Inconvenient, troublesome, annoying. 2. Uncomfortably small, lacking sufficient space.
Notes: Today's Good Word is the negative of commodious "convenient, advantageous, comfortable". It comes from a verb incommode "to make difficult, inconvenient", the negative of the verb commode "to provide with". Today this verb is most often replaced by its synonym and cousin, accommodate. You may use the adverb incommodiously and the noun incommodiousness, if you have the time to articulate them.
In Play: Because of its semantic relationship with accommodate, today's word usually combines the senses of being too small and inconvenient: "Although I appreciated the job, I was provided with a most incommodious office next to the boiler room in the basement." However, as Meaning 1 above indicates, smallness is not an inevitable sense of the word: "I found arrival of the plumber during my morning shower most incommodious."
Word History: Incommodious meant simply "inconvenient" in Middle English, whither it came from Medieval Latin incommodiosus. This adjective was a descendant of Latin incommodus: in- "not" + com- "with" + modus "measure". At the bottom of this rather long word is the PIE root *med-/mod- "measure; to take (appropriate) measures". The same root underlies Old English mete "measure", remaining today only in the archaic expression to mete out justice.
INCOMMODIOUS
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INCOMMODIOUS
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Re: INCOMMODIOUS
Cramped shower cabin - not big enough for two ?......
However, as Meaning 1 above indicates, smallness is not an inevitable sense of the word: "I found arrival of the plumber during my morning shower most incommodious."
Henri
曾记否,到中流击水,浪遏飞舟?
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