pedality

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pəˈdælɪti/

Etymology 1

From Ancient Greek πέδον (pédon, “soil”) + -ality.

Noun

pedality (countable and uncountable, plural pedalities)

1. (soil science) The physical structure of a soil, especially in the context of its constituent peds.
   • 2002, G. Stoops, “Proposal for redefining and extension of concepts and terminology of the ISSS “handbook on soil thin section description"”, in WCSS (Symposium no. 36):

     Following the ideas of the Soil Survey Manual (Soil Survey Staff, 1951), Bullock et al. (1985) recommended to describe the grade of pedality as part of the description of microstructure. Bullock et al. (1985) and FitzPatrick (1984) based for micromorphological descriptions their grading on the only criterion visible in thin sections, namely the degree to which the aggregates are surrounded by voids. Systematic comparision of micromorphological and field descriptions revealed serious discrepancies in many cases. Specially soils with a high score for pedality in the field were not evaluated as such in thin sections (Langohr, personal communication), as pedality is not only a factor of separation.

Related terms

• ped

Etymology 2

pedal +‎ -ity

Noun

pedality (countable and uncountable, plural pedalities)

1. The anatomical formation of the foot and surrounding region.
   • 1656, Thomas White, Peripateticall institutions.:

     Cloven-footednesse includes pedality.

   • 1837 December, William E. Burton, “The Man in the Big Boots”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, volume 1, number 6, page 412:

     A rusty brown coat, of antique cut, fitted closely to a long ungainly body; a pair of greasy galligaskins, which had once been gray, rand down into the capacious jaws of a long and large pair of rusty boots; these noticeable articles, from their make, must once have cased the nether extremities of a horseman in Rupert's troop, or have defended the pedalities of some old smuggler for many a long year.

   • 1852 February, Thompson Westcott, “The Physiology of Dandyism”, in Graham's Magazine, volume 40, number 2, page 123:

     There is really no difference between the formation of the lower pedalities of a pure dandy, and those of a pure Ethiopian. In this anatomical fact lies the great difficulty in the way of modern "squirts".

2. Something that is associated with the foot, such as the way it is used (for locomotion or measurement) or the articles of clothing worn on it.
   • 1863, Notes and Queries, page 479:

     I was followed by my noble hostess (womewhat more, be it understood, than a middle-aged lady), who gravely sate down, and, bidding me take off my cravat, like Thomson's Musidora—"...from her leg the inverted worsted drew"— pinned it scientifically round my throat, with the comfortable assurance that it would be "no sort of good" unless applied warm from the foot. The kind lady had hardly left, when —unthankful wretch that I was!—I unpinned the pedality, and next morning restored it with my best acknowledgments of its anti-pertussian efficacy.

   • 2010, James Andrew Smith, Jamil Jivraj, “Preliminary energetics of tripedal and quadrupedal gaits using the garp-4 robot.”, in Symposium on brain, body and machine:

     Changes in pedality can occur in animals due to injury, congenital defects, or behaviour.

   • 2010., Peter Aerts et al., “Changing pedality in primates: a case of fast ‘loco-morphing’."”, in Proceedings of The Society for Experimental Biology Annual Meeting:

     (see title)