Piecemeal

Piecemeal is an adjective that means one at a time or gradually. At first glance our word of the day may seem to be simply a combination of the words ‘piece’ and ‘meal.’ But its origin is a little more complicated than that. The word’s second syllable — meal — has nothing to do with ‘food consumed on regular occasions,’ but the similarity stems from their Old English origin, meaning taken one at a time.’ It took several operations, but gradually, the surgeon removed every remnant of metal from the patient’s leg.