"belonging to or including both sexes," mid-15c., epycen, originally a grammatical term for nouns that may denote either gender, from Latin epicoenus "common," from Greek epikoinos "common to many, promiscuous," from epi "on" (see epi-) + koinos "common" (see coeno-). English has no need of it in its grammatical sense. Extended sense of "characteristic of both sexes" first recorded in English c. 1600; that of "effeminate" is from 1630s.
Proto-Indo-European root meaning "horn; head," with derivatives referring to horned animals, horn-shaped objects, and projecting parts.
It forms all or part of: alpenhorn; Capricorn; carat; carotid; carrot; carotene; cerato-; cerebellum; cerebral; cerebrum; cervical; cervix; charivari; cheer; chelicerae; corn (n.2) "hardening of the skin;" cornea; corner; cornet; cornucopia; cranium; flugelhorn; hart; hartebeest; horn; hornbeam; hornblende; hornet; keratin; kerato-; migraine; monoceros; reindeer; rhinoceros; saveloy; serval; triceratops; unicorn.
It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit srngam "horn;" Persian sar "head," Avestan sarah- "head;" Greek karnon "horn," koryne "club, mace," koryphe "head;" Latin cornu "horn," cervus "deer;" Old English horn "horn of an animal;" Welsh carw "deer."
c. 1300, "the people of a country, a community," from Old French comunalte, from comun (see common (adj.) as if from Medieval Latin *communalitas. A respelling of commonalty (late 13c.). Meaning "the common people" is attested from 1580s; that of "state or quality of being shared" is from 1954.
in writing, to indicate the common casual pronunciation of could have, by 1909.
common name of a work-horse or farm horse, 1596 (in "Merchant of Venice"), probably from diminutive form of Dob (early 13c.), the common Middle English familiar form of the masc. proper name Robin or Robert; the personal name being applied to a horse.
1620s, from un- (1) "not" + precedented. In common use from c. 1760.
1798 (transitive) "make popular or common, bring to a common level, render democratic;" 1840 (intransitive) "become democratic," from French démocratiser, noted as one of the neologisms of the Revolution, from démocratie (see democracy). Greek demokratizein meant "to be on the democratic side."
a spelling of homogeneous that represents a common pronunciation, perhaps by influence of homogenize.
