Etymologically
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polypus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpɔ.ly.puːs], [ˈpoː.ly.pʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpɔː.li.pus][1]

Forms

pō̆lypus m (genitive pō̆lypī); second declension[1] Lucilius has it as a feminine.[2] Late writers have the Greek accusative plural polypodas and a vulgar by-form pulpus.[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek πολύπους (polúpous, “octopus; many-footed”),[2][3][4] a compound of πολύς (polús, “many”) and πούς (poús, “foot”).[4][1] The OLD gives the Greek source as πουλύπους (poulúpous).[5] Lewis and Short and Georges note the Doric and Aeolic form πωλύπος (pōlúpos),[2][3] which explains why poets such as Plautus and Horace scan the first ⟨o⟩ long.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first,[4] of the octopus: in the Rudens someone threatens adflīgam ad terram tē … ut piscem soleō polypum, “I'll dash you to the ground as I do an octopus”.[5]

Semantic evolution

Besides the sea creature, named as food in Ennius and Cicero,[5] it was applied to grasping people who hold on to whatever they touch, as in Plautus' Aulularia.[5][3] From Cato on it also named a growth in the nose, a polyp, a sense in Horace, Celsus and Pliny the Elder.[5][2]

In medieval British sources it still names the cuttlefish, noted for changing its colour, and the nasal growth, but it is also glossed as a lobster.[6] English took the medical sense as polyp, from Old French and directly from Latin.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of the octopus and of grasping people.[5][4]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of a growth in the nose.[5][4]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius names it as food.[5][4]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus describes the polyp of the nose.[5][4]
  • c. 1400 – English borrows the medical sense as polyp.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An octopus.[5][2]
  2. (figurative) A grasping, rapacious person.[5][3]
  3. A polyp in the nose.[5][2]
  4. (Medieval Latin) A cuttlefish; a lobster.[6]

Word family

  • pōlypōsus

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com