The etymology of common geological terms
Q. - What do you get when you cross a geologist by profession and an etymologist by fascination? A. - The author of this blog post. I'm a Teaching Assistant (TA) this semester for a course on Sedimentology and Stratigraphy being offered at the Department of Earth Sciences, IIT Kanpur. It's a great opportunity to revise a subject that I was previously only average at, and to explore nooks and crannies in the syllabus that I could not previously devote much time to. One gem of my contemplation has been the exploring of word roots of some common terms. A short note on the etymology of common geological terms SEDIMENT Sediment comes from the root "sed" which essentially means "to sit". Sediment is quite literally the stuff that sits/sinks or settles down from a liquid. What is interesting to note is that sedative is also derived from the same word root; it's something that calms you and makes you sit down. And when you're complaining of the