Random Word Of The Week: Dichotomy

 

Dichotomy 

   The word dichotomy is a noun which is typically pronounced “die-caw-tow-me” or di-chot-o-my. It is a word that is made up of two Ancient Greek root words, “dicho”, meaning “two” and “tomy”, meaning “to cut”. The word itself is also modifiable root for the adjective dichotomous and the adverb, dichotomousness. As a noun, it means a division into two often opposing parts or views but when applied in biology, it refers to a fork in pairs of organisms. So to be dichotomous is to be split in two and to have dichotomousness, the subject is divided into two.

       An example of this in life is good and evil— two things which are so interconnected as to be unable to exist without one another but which are so inherently different that they are split, opposing sides. Or in biology, a pair of different breeds of the same species, such as a basset hound and a toy poodle, both dogs with vastly differing traits, may also represent a dichotomy. 

A basset hound and a toy poodle.

       Often times, the easiest way to envision a dichotomy is to think of a tree branch with smaller sticks jutting out from it. Each of those branches is dichotomized from the main branch. Split into two, yet connected at the base. Cut away, yet still connected. The author feels this particular word was an important one to start this weekly series with, as there are many aspects of love, life, religion, politics, history, science, biology, friendship and family which are dichotomized. We live in a very complex world that requires quite a bit of patience and understanding.