My duodecimoplex and other complications
I confess to being mildly annoyed recently to learn that an official application I needed to submit had to be filed with 12 copies of everything.听
Twelve? Really? They don鈥檛 have copiers over there? I didn鈥檛 stay annoyed very long, though. In situations like this, true wordsmiths don鈥檛 get mad; they get even more eager to check their dictionaries and figure out other ways of describing whatever is irking them.
鈥淵our application should be submitted twelvefold?鈥� Or 鈥渋n twelvefold?鈥� Or 鈥渋n 12-fold,鈥� to follow newspaper style and use numerals for numbers over 10? Hmph.
As I waited for my copies in the print shop, I found myself longing for a spiffy Latin-derived word that would be to 12 copies what triplicate is to three.
That鈥檚 how I came up with 诲耻辞诲别肠颈颅尘辞辫濒别虫. I borrowed 鈥渄uodecim鈥� from the Latin word for 12; the 鈥減lex鈥� suffix indicates 鈥渇old.鈥澛�
Duodecimo is also a common book size, or used to be, with 12 leaves printed per traditionally sized 鈥渟heet.鈥� Duodecimo editions (鈥�12mo鈥� to the cognoscenti) typically measure 5 by 7 inches.
I can鈥檛 claim that duodecimoplex is actually in any dictionary. But I was interested to see how many -plicate forms are fairly accessible.
OneLook, my go-to online resource for quick comparisons across multiple dictionaries, shows numerous entries for not only the familiar duplicate and triplicate but also quadruplicate, quintuplicate, and on through octuplicate. There鈥檚 even centuplicate, for 鈥渉undredfold.鈥澛�
The -plicate part comes from the past participle of the Latin plicare, 鈥渢o fold,鈥� as the Online Etymology Dictionary explains. That root shows up not only in these numbering terms but in a raft of words referring to some sort of notional 鈥渇olding.鈥澛�
Complicated, for instance, comes from Latin words meaning 鈥渇olded together,鈥� and not necessarily in a neat Martha Stewart sort of way. Long before there was Facebook, with its status updates, complicated meant 鈥渢angled.鈥� Compli颅cit, implicit, imply, implication 鈥� they all share this idea of 鈥渇olding in鈥� or 鈥渇olding together,鈥� and a root in plicare.听
Simple is part of this same family, but the metaphor there is something 鈥渇olded,鈥� but only once. The ply in plywood is another instance of this Latin root.
The native English equivalent of -plicate is -fold. Those who delight in the way English seems to have two sets of words for everything note the neat matchup between, say, hundredfold and centuplicate.听
The manifolds of automobiles are, etymologically, chambers with several (or multiple) outlets 鈥� multiple is a Latin-颅derived equivalent of the native English manifold.
And back to the quest for an equivalent to 鈥渢welvefold鈥�: It took just a little more dictionary searching, and then I found it.
When the local official who received my stack of paper saw that I had 12 copies of each page, she gave an appreciative thumbs up. It made me glad I knew to submit everything in duodecuplicate 鈥� and yes, dear reader, that is the word.
