'peduncular' originates from Latin, specifically the word 'pedunculus,' where 'pes, pedis' (via the root 'ped-') meant 'foot' and the diminutive suffix '-unculus' meant 'little'.

'pedunculus' in Latin (a 'little foot' or small stalk) passed into Medieval/Scientific Latin and then into English as the noun 'peduncle'; the adjective 'peduncular' was later formed from that noun.

Initially it meant 'little foot' (a small stalk or foot-like projection); over time it came to mean 'relating to or resembling a stalk,' the modern botanical and anatomical sense.