It's the Word of the Day podcast for October 4th.
Today's word is adventitious, spelled A-D-V-E-N-T-I-T-I-O-U-S.
Adventitious is an adjective.
It's a formal word that most often describes something
that comes from an outside source and is neither inherent nor innate.
In botanical contexts especially, the word also describes something that arises
or occurs sporadically or not in the usual or expected location.
Here's the word used in a sentence from the Orange County Register.
Although individual creosote bush plants have a lifespan of 30 to 90 years, adventitious shoots grow up from the roots.
These develop into new plants, clones of the original, that form a ring around the spot where the original plant stood.
Early in Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre, the titular Jane ascertains that her new employer, Mr. Rochester,
whom she thinks is decidedly not handsome, has other qualities, intrinsic or adventitious,
that atone for the lack of mere personal attractiveness.
We all possess intrinsic and adventitious qualities.
The former we're born with, the latter we gain through life's lessons.
English speakers anglicized the Latin word adventicius
in the early 17th century to apply it with its Latin meaning coming from outside, external, foreign.
The word still carries this meaning primarily, but by the close of the 17th century was also being used,
especially in botany, to describe that which arises or occurs sporadically or in other than the usual location,
as when adventitious roots appear when roots generally are not found.