## Etymology
From pigeon + hole, originally a small recess in a dovecote where pigeons nest; the sense of a desk compartment, and thence the figurative verb 'to categorize narrowly', developed by analogy.

## AI Etymology
Pigeonhole comes from pigeon + hole, originally a small recess in a dovecote where pigeons nest; the sense of a desk compartment, and thence the figurative verb 'to categorize narrowly', developed by analogy. The etymological trail includes Old English hol. As a verb, pigeonhole means to categorize narrowly, or a small compartment for papers. The same family is visible in related forms such as pigeon and hole. Morphologically, the word is built from the elements named in its history, so the modern form preserves a visible compound, prefix, or suffix structure.

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pigeonhole

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