Sunday Rest: propagule.

 I dislike words which have gule in them. The sound is too like ghoul.

Gules, for instance, means bright red but sounds (sorry) like mud-coloured vomit. 

The word propagule is used by botanists (who do, I must admit, need a lot of words) and it means one of those bits of a plant which can be detached and then grown into a new plant.

Yes, those are often called seeds. But they can be cuttings, too, or anything else which can grow into a new plant.

If you call them propagules (or, even worse, the alternative form propagula) then I fear that people will be afraid to go out into the garden.

Mind you, the word progagule is also used to describe expelled viruses and bacteria. 

So perhaps we should be afraid.

Sunday Rest: propagule. The propag- bit comes from propagate, which comes from the Latin word propāgāre, which means to take cuttings of plants, from pagere, to fatten. The -ule bit comes from the Latin -ulus, which is what the Romans stuck onto the back end of a word to make a thing sound smaller.