prehension

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 17, 2008 is: prehension • \pree-HEN-shun\ • noun 1 : the act of taking hold, seizing, or grasping 2 : mental understanding : comprehension 3 : apprehension by the senses Examples: The new surgery claims to offer an increase in hand prehension and successful use of the hand after a nerve transplant. Did you know? It's easy to grasp the origins of "prehension" -- it descends from the Latin verb "prehendere," which means "to seize” or “to grasp." Other descendants of "prehendere" in English include "apprehend," "comprehend" ("to grasp the nature or significance of"), "prehensile" ("adapted for seizing or grasping"), "prison," "reprise," and "reprisal." Even the English word "get" comes to us from the same ancient root that led to the Latin "prehendere." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.