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Pi·card

(pĭ-kärd)

1. A native or inhabitant of Picardy.

2. The Romance language traditionally spoken in Picardy and adjacent parts of Belgium, descended from the Langue d'oïl and closely related to French.

[Middle English, from Old French, perhaps from pic, pick, pickaxe (from the notion held by people in other parts of France that Picards were mostly farmers who worked their fields with pickaxes).]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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