BICAMERAL adjective (bahy-kam-er-uh t)


adjective

1. Government. having two branches, chambers, or houses, as a legislative body.


Quotes

In five centuries it evolved by 1848 from a loose confederacy of almost sovereign states into a sovereign confederation with a bicameral legislature patterned on the U.S. model.
--*"Switzerland: Its Citizen Army Ably Guards Its Old Freedom," Life, September 4, 1939

“Absent such a bipartisan, bicameral agreement, we are reticent to support any budget resolution on the House floor,” a group of 20 moderates wrote in a letter to the leadership in late June.
--*Russell Berman,*"Why Republicans Can't Just Pivot to Tax Reform," The Atlantic, August 7, 2017



Origin

The closest Latin equivalent to bicameral is the adjective bicamerātus “double vaulted, with double arches.” The Latin prefix bi- derives from bis “two, twice.” In Old Latin the form was duis: Old Latin duidens “having two teeth, two-toothed; a sacrificial animal” becomes bidens in Latin. Likewise Old Latin duellum “war” becomes bellum in Latin. The Latin noun camera “vault, arched roof” comes from Greek kamára “vaulted chamber, covered carriage, vault (of heaven or a tomb).” Bicameral entered English in the 19th century.