πολύπους

Forms

Adjective: πολύπους (polúpous) m or f (neuter πολύπουν); third declension.^[1][2] Noun: πολύπους (polúpous) m (genitive πολύποδος); third declension.^[1][2] The noun's older form is πουλύπους (poulúpous) (Homer, Ionic and Attic), often declined as if from πούλυπος (genitive πουλύπου in Theognis); Doric has πώλυπος (plural πώλυποι in Epicharmus), and later writers have πῶλυψ.^[2][3] The form πολύπους is found from Aristotle on.^[2][3][4] Mycenaean has the dative Mycenaean Greek po-ru-po-de on a Pylos tablet (Ta 722).^[3][4]

Etymology

As an adjective it is a compound from Ancient Greek πολύς (polús, “much, many”) + πούς (poús, “foot”), “many-footed”.^[1][4][5] The first part goes back to Proto-Indo-European *polh₁ús (“much”), the second to Proto-Indo-European *pṓds (“foot”).^[1]

The name of the octopus is disputed.^[3][6] Frisk, Chantraine and Beekes take the form with long ω, Doric πώλυπος (pṓlupos), to be the oldest, since it was borrowed as Latin pōlypus (from Plautus on).^[7][4][3] They consider it a Mediterranean word of unknown origin, which folk etymology reshaped after πολύς (polús) and πούς (poús) into πουλύπους (poulúpous) and πολύπους.^[3][7][4] Beekes and Chantraine add, however, that the octopus already has the inflection of a compound in Mycenaean and in Homer.^[3][4] The CGL explains the octopus name as a popular etymology from the same pair, and Cunliffe as a plain compound.^[6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest record is the Mycenaean dative Mycenaean Greek po-ru-po-de on a Pylos tablet.^[3][4] In Homer the octopus, πουλύπους, appears in the Odyssey (5.432).^[8][2][9]

Semantic evolution

The octopus is the common sense in poetry and comedy, where the word is often declined as a thematic noun.^[2][10] Aristotle, who first uses the form πολύπους for the animal, also uses it for many-footed insects, especially the myriapods; the woodlouse was called the “many-footed ὄνος”.^[2][10][11] From the Hippocratic writers on it named a fleshy growth in the nose, the polyp, and in the Geoponica a fern.^[2][4] The Epistle of Barnabas lists the octopus with the moray and the cuttlefish among the forbidden foods.^[12]

The adjective “many-footed” is used by Plato of creatures, and by Sophocles of an Erinys, with a suggestion of swift or untiring pursuit; an oracle in Polyaenus uses it in a passive sense, “trodden by many feet”.^[6][2]

Latin pōlypus gave French poulpe.^[4] English polyp came through Old French and Latin about 1400 as a word for a nasal tumour; it was used for the octopus from the 1580s and for hydras and sea anemones from 1742.^[13] Modern Greek has the learned πολύποδας (polýpodas) for the octopus in zoology, for the polyp and for a benign tumour, but the everyday word for the octopus is χταπόδι (chtapódi), from a diminutive of ὀκτάπους (oktápous).^[14][4]

Timeline

• Mycenaean period – A Pylos tablet has the dative Mycenaean Greek po-ru-po-de.^[3][4]
• Homer – The Odyssey has πουλύπους (poulúpous) for the octopus.^[8][9]
• 6th century BC – Theognis uses the octopus in his elegies, declining the word as πούλυπος (poúlupos).^[2][9][15]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles calls an Erinys “many-footed”, and Hippocratic writers use the word for a nasal polyp.^[6][2][15]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses the form πολύπους for the octopus and for many-footed insects.^[2][3][15]
• About 1400 – English polyp is first recorded, for a nasal tumour.^[13]
• Modern Greek – The learned πολύποδας (polýpodas) means the octopus or a polyp.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Many-footed.^[2][6]
2. Of an Erinys: swift-footed or untiring.^[6]
3. (passive) Trodden by many feet.^[2]

Noun

1. The octopus.^[2][6][12]
2. (zoology) A many-footed insect, especially a myriapod; with ὄνος, the woodlouse.^[2][10][11]
3. (medicine) A polyp in the nose.^[2][3]
4. A plant, the same as πολυπόδιον (polupódion), a fern.^[2][4]

Word family

• πωλύπιον (pōlúpion)
• πολυπόδιον (polupódion)

Related words

• πώλυπος (pṓlupos)
• πουλύπους (poulúpous)
• πολύς (polús)
• πούς (poús)
• Latin polypus
• English polyp

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
5. ^ Bailly, Anatole (1901), Abrégé du dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
8. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
9. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ a b c Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
11. ^ a b Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
12. ^ a b Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
13. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
15. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge