polype

Forms

polype m (plural polypes)^[1] Old French polipe; the spelling polype was remade after the etymology in the 16th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin polypus (“polyp (a zoophyte), nasal polyp”),^[3][2][1] a Hellenism taken from Ancient Greek πολύπους (polúpous, “octopus, nasal growth”), the noun use of an adjective meaning “many-footed”,^[3][2] from πολύς (polús, “many”) and πούς (poús, “foot”).^[3][4][5] The same Greek word is the source of poulpe and, indirectly, of pieuvre.^[2][6]

Cognate with Occitan polip, Spanish pólipo and Italian polipo.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded as polipe about 1240, in a French version of Roger of Salerno's Chirurgie, for a growth that develops in the body's cavities.^[3][2] The Grand Robert, the GLLF and the Petit Robert date it to about 1265, in Brunetto Latini.^[7][4][8]

Semantic evolution

Physicians of the 13th century brought the word into French for a soft, fleshy tumour growing in a cavity.^[2] In zoology it was first taken from Latin in the sense of the octopus (1284, Brunetto Latini's Trésor), a use later ousted by poulpe.^[3][2] Rabelais has the form polype in 1546.^[3]

In 1742 Réaumur, with Bernard de Jussieu, gave the name to small freshwater animals because their horns looked like the arms of the sea animal, and Trembley adopted it.^[3] The word then named the form of certain soft-bodied marine animals with tentacles,^[2] a sense Rey finds in Ronsard as early as 1550.^[2] In pathology it also named a fibrous clot forming in the heart or large vessels.^[3][5]

Timeline

• c. 1240 – Polipe appears in the French Chirurgie of Roger of Salerno.^[3]
• 1284 – Brunetto Latini's Trésor uses it for the octopus.^[3][2]
• 1546 – Rabelais writes polype.^[3]
• 1550 – Ronsard uses it of a sea animal clinging to a rock.^[2][5]
• 1552 – The derivative polypeux appears.^[2][6]
• 1742 – Réaumur names freshwater animals polypes.^[3][2]
• 1747 – The derivative polypier appears.^[2]
• 1929 – Polypose is first recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology) The fixed form of certain cnidarians, with a hollow body and a mouth ringed with tentacles, or the animal itself: une colonie de polypes.^[8][9]
2. (pathology) A soft or fibrous tumour attached by a stalk, growing in a cavity lined with mucous membrane: un polype de l'intestin.^[8][3][4]
3. (pathology, dated) A fibrinous clot formed in the heart or a large vessel.^[3][5]
4. (obsolete) The octopus.^[3][5]

Word family

• polypeux
• polypier
• polypose

Related words

• poulpe
• pieuvre
• polypode
• Latin polypus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
4. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)