English
regmacarp
Regmacarp comes from Ancient Greek ῥῆγμα ‘something broken or rent asunder’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *kerp- ‘to harvest’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kerp-1‘to harvest’reconstructed
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEῥῆγμα1rhêgma‘something broken or rent asunder’
- Englishearliest quotation 1871regmacarp1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English regmacarp
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1871, William Ramsay McNab, Remarks on the Classification of Fruits: “Taking the word Schizocarp as a type, I venture…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kerp-Wiktionary, English regmacarp‘to harvest’reconstructed
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEῥῆγμαWiktionary, English regmacarprhêgma‘something broken or rent asunder’
- Englishearliest quotation 1871regmacarpWiktionary, English regmacarp. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1871, William Ramsay McNab, Remarks on the Classification of Fruits: “Taking the word Schizocarp as a type, I venture…”
The story
From Ancient Greek ῥῆγμα (rhêgma, “something broken or rent asunder; a breach, cleft, fracture”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (‘to break’)) + English -carp (suffix meaning ‘part of a fruit or fruiting body’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kerp- (‘to harvest; to pluck’)), modelled after schizocarp. The word was probably coined by the Scottish physician and botanist William Ramsay McNab (1844–1889): see the 1871 article from the journal Nature quoted below.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *kerp- ‘to harvest’
Today it means
noun A fruit which, when mature, splits open to release its seeds; a dehiscent fruit.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “regmacarp”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *kerp- / regmacarp