Proto-Indo-European root meaning "foot."
It forms all or part of: antipodes; apodal; Arthropoda; babouche; biped; brachiopod; cap-a-pie; centipede; cephalopod; cheliped; chiropodist; expedite; expedition; foot; foosball; fetch (v.); fetter; fetlock; gastropod; hexapod; impair; impede; impediment; impeach; impeccable; isopod; millipede; octopus; Oedipus; ornithopod; pajamas; pawn (n.2) "lowly chess piece;" peccadillo; peccant; peccavi; pedal; pedestrian; pedicel; pedicle; pedicure; pedigree; pedology; pedometer; peduncle; pejoration; pejorative; peon; pessimism; petiole; pew; Piedmont; piepowder; pilot; pinniped; pioneer; platypus; podiatry; podium; polyp; pseudopod; quadruped; sesquipedalian; stapes; talipes; tetrapod; Theropoda; trapezium; trapezoid; tripod; trivet; vamp (n.1) "upper part of a shoe or boot;" velocipede.
It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit pad-, accusative padam "foot;" Avestan pad-; Greek pos, Attic pous, genitive podos; Latin pes, genitive pedis "foot;" Lithuanian padas "sole," pėda "footstep;" Old English fot, German Fuß, Gothic fotus "foot."
1560s, "lower in position, rank, or dignity, impair morally," from de- "down" + base (adj.) "low," on analogy of abase (or, alternatively, from obsolete verb base "to abuse"). From 1590s as "lower in quality or value" (of currency, etc.), "degrade, adulterate." Related: Debased; debasing; debasement.
"weaken, impair the strength of, enfeeble, make inactive or languid," 1530s, from Latin debilitatus, past participle of debilitare "to weaken," from debilis "weak, helpless," from de "from, away" (see de-) + -bilis "strength," from PIE root *bel- "strong" (see Bolshevik). Related: Debilitated; debilitating.
"deterioration, a becoming worse," 1650s, noun of action from pejorate (1640s), from Late Latin peiorare "make worse," from Latin peior "worse," perhaps originally "stumbling," from PIE *ped-yos-, suffixed (comparative) form of *ped- "to walk, stumble, impair," from root *ped- "foot." Meaning "a lowering or deterioration of the sense of a word" is by 1889.
late 14c., "mar the external figure of, impair the beauty, symmetry, or excellence of," also "transform the appearance of, disguise," from Old French desfigurer "disfigure, alter, disguise, destroy," from Medieval Latin diffigurare, from assimilated form of Latin dis- (see dis-) + figurare "to form, shape," from figura "a shape, form, figure" (from PIE root *dheigh- "to form, build"). Related: Disfigured; disfiguring; disfiguration.