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octopus

Etymology and origin of the English word octopus

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈɒktəpʊs/, /ˈɒktəpəs/ (UK); /ˈɑktəpʊs/, /ˈɑktəpəs/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin Octopus, the genus name,[2][3][4][5][6] from Ancient Greek ὀκτώπους (oktṓpous, “eight-footed”),[2][3][4][5][6] from Ancient Greek ὀκτώ (oktṓ, “eight”) + πούς (poús, “foot”).[2][3][4][6] The usual ancient Greek name for the animal was polúpous.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The genus of eight-armed molluscs, or an individual of it (1758).[7][3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

From 1882 the word was used figuratively of an organization with far-reaching branches and influence, especially a harmful one.[7][4] The plural octopi (1817) treats the ending as the Latin -us of nouns whose plural is -i,[4] but the Greek word belongs to another declension, whose plural would be octopodes;[4][1] octopuses is the plain English form.[4][1]

Timeline

  • 1758 – the genus and the animal.[7][3][4][5]
  • 1817 – the plural octopi.[4]
  • 1882 – figuratively, a far-reaching organization.[7][4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Any of numerous carnivorous marine molluscs of the genus Octopus and related genera, with a soft rounded body, a large head, a beak-like mouth and eight arms, each with two rows of suckers.
  2. Something, such as a large corporation, with many powerful branches controlled from the centre.

Word family

  • octopod
  • polyp
  • cephalopod
  • eight
  • foot

Usage notes

The plurals octopuses and octopi are both in use;[5][1] Wiktionary notes that octopi is a hypercorrection, since the word is not a Latin noun in -us, and that the rare octopodes follows the Greek plural.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Octopus.” Etymologically, 11 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/octopus. Accessed 11 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·