What is the morphology of the word proprioception? I heard this word in a Facebook reel yesterday from an autistic creator. I have also previously heard this word mentioned within autistic content. I recognized the <Cept> base as in perception but was unsure about the <proprio> portion.
<per + Cept + ion → perception>
I thus began my word study by looking up proprioception on Wiktionary and Merriam Webster. Proprioception is the sense that allows the body to perceive its own position, movement, and balance. While the word is a modern formation from British neurophysiologist Charles Scott Sherrington in 1906, the morphemes are derived from classical words and through established word formation processes.
The <Cept> base, which I immediately recognized, comes from Latin -cept from -cipere from capere and denotes “assume, take, grasp, hold, contain.” The <Cept> bound base, which forms words such as deception and receptive, is related to the other bases <Cape>, <Capt>, <Ceipt>, <Ceive>, <Cipe>, <Cupe>, all ultimately from Latin capere.
<de + Cept + ion → deception>
<re + Cept + ive → receptive>
As for proprioception, I now had the following initial word sum:
<proprio + Cept + ion → proprioception>
I needed to further analyze the <proprio>. Before doing any research, I considered whether the <pro> was the same as the pro- prefix denoting “forward, forth, toward the front, beforehand, in advance, taking care of, in place of, on behalf of, before, for, in exchange for, just as, in front of, sooner, in favor of, favoring.” If the <pro> were a prefix, then the <prio> would remain, which could have been the base <Prio> or the base and connecting vowel <Pro + -o->. However, the only way to ascertain the morphology is to investigate the etymology.
Looking at the entries for proprioception, I learned that the <proprio> comes from Latin proprius “belonging to oneself, particular to one, characteristic of, distinctive, individual, specialized, specific, strict.” The -us is a common Latin ending, which left <Propri>. I thus updated my hypothesized word sum:
<Propri + o + Cept + ion → proprioception>
On the Wiktionary entry for proprius, I learned that another descendant of the Latin word is the English word proper. <Proper> is a free base that denotes “suitable, possessed, belonging to oneself, related, strictly applied,” a denotation almost identical to the denotation of the related <Propri>. Modern English proper developed from Middle English propre from Anglo-Norman proper, propre from Old French propre from Latin proprius. The change from proprius to proper occurred because of the intervening French.
Looking at the Wiktionary entry more, I also saw Latin proprietās listed as a derived term. I know that Latin -tās developed into English -ty, which would result in propriety, which is an English word. I was correct because, listed under the descendants of Latin proprietās is the English propriety.
<Propri + e + ty → propriety>
Also listed under descendants was English property via Old French propreté, which gave me a relative for the related <Proper>:
<Proper + ty → property>
The words propriety and property are doublets, or a pair of words in the same language that originate from the same etymological source but differ in form and meaning due to separate paths of transmission. Propriety came directly from Latin. Property came through French. Both came from the same Latin source.
To find additional relatives, I searched for proprius on Etymonline. Relatives that share the <Propri> base include appropriate, appropriation, expropriate, expropriation, and proprioceptor. I also found the word proprial on Wiktionary.
<ap + Propri + ate → appropriate>
<ap + Propri + ate + ion → appropriation>
<ex + Propri + ate → expropriate>
<ex + Propri + ate + ion → expropriation>
<Propri + o + Cept + or → proprioceptor>
<Propri + al → proprial>
I finally used The Free Dictionary to find other potential relatives that contained <propri>. I found the following additional relatives, which I confirmed came from Latin proprius by cross-checking with Wiktionary and Merriam Webster: proprium, propria, impropriate, and dispropriate.
I also noticed the words proprietor and proprietary, neither of which neatly fit into the <Propri> + affix(es) pattern of the other related words. Looking up both in Wiktionary and Merriam Webster, I learned that proprietor and proprietary are both more recent words, first attested in the 1500s, which is recent in terms of etymology. I also learned that proprietor developed from proprietary, which developed from Late Latin proprietarius from Latin proprietas.
Two analyses are possible for the word proprietary. The first is that the base <Propriet> comes from Late Latin proprietarius:
<Propriet + ary → proprietary>
<Propriet + or → proprietor>
However, as I discussed in my post about the <it(e)> suffix, more recent words can contain modern suffixal constructions. As words from the transition period between Late Middle English and Early Modern English, both proprietary and proprietor are more recent words. I thus analyze the modern suffixal constructions as -etary from –ety + -ary and -etor from -ety + -or. Wiktionary agrees with my analysis, noting that proprietary is propriety + -ary by surface analysis.
<Propri + etary → proprietary>
<Propri + etor → proprietor>
Other modern suffixal constructions in English include -itary, -itate, and -acious. Such modern suffixes both show the more recent history of a word and maintain the relationship between modern and classical words with the same classical base.
Investigating the word proprioception lead to the discovery of the new-to-me base <Propri> and two new suffixal constructions. I also learned the etymology of the related <Proper>, which shares the same Latin source as <Propri> but changed in form due to French influence.
