fissiparous

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The Word of the Day for September 19 is: 

fissiparous   \fih-SIP-uh-rus\   adjective
     : tending to break up into parts : divisive

Example sentence:
     The reorganization of management can have a fissiparous effect on the rest 
of the company.

Did you know?
     When it first entered English in the 19th century, “fissiparous” was 
concerned with reproduction. In biology, a fissiparous organism is one that 
produces new individuals by fission; that is, by dividing into separate parts, 
each of which becomes a unique organism. (Most strains of bacteria do this.) 
“Fissiparous” derives from Latin “fissus,” the past participle of “findere” 
(“to split”), and “parere,” meaning “to give birth to” or “to produce.” Other 
“parere” offspring refer to other forms of reproduction, including “oviparous” 
(“producing eggs that hatch outside the body”) and “viviparous” (“producing 
living young instead of eggs”). By the end of the 19th century “fissiparous” 
had acquired a figurative meaning, describing something that breaks into parts 
or causes something else to break into parts. 





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