polypus Latin · revision 34492

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=grc πολύπους}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈpɔ.ly.puːs], [ˈpoː.ly.pʊs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈpɔː.li.pus]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''pō̆lypus''' ''m'' (genitive pō̆lypī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+ Lucilius has it as a feminine.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ Late writers have the Greek accusative plural ''polypodas'' and a vulgar by-form ''pulpus''.^(Georges 1913)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|grc|πολύπους|tr=polúpous|t=octopus; many-footed]],^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913)^(Köbler 2010) a compound of [[m|grc|πολύς|tr=polús|t=many]] and [[m|grc|πούς|tr=poús|t=foot]].^(Köbler 2010)^(Wiktionary) The OLD gives the Greek source as [[m|grc|πουλύπους|tr=poulúpous]].^(OLD 2012) Lewis and Short and Georges note the Doric and Aeolic form [[m|grc|πωλύπος|tr=pōlúpos]],^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) which explains why poets such as Plautus and Horace scan the first ⟨o⟩ long.^(Georges 1913)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Plautus has it first,^(Köbler 2010) of the [[m|en|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”.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Besides the sea creature, named as food in Ennius and Cicero,^(OLD 2012) it was applied to grasping people who hold on to whatever they touch, as in Plautus' ''Aulularia''.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913) From Cato on it also named a growth in the nose, a polyp, a sense in Horace, Celsus and Pliny the Elder.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ 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.^(DMLBS) English took the medical sense as polyp, from Old French and directly from Latin.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of the octopus and of grasping people.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of a growth in the nose.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 204–169 BC – Ennius names it as food.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 14–37 AD – Celsus describes the polyp of the nose.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 1400 – English borrows the medical sense as polyp.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # An [[m|en|octopus]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''(figurative)'' A grasping, rapacious person.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)

+ # A [[m|en|polyp]] in the nose.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' A [[m|en|cuttlefish]]; a [[m|en|lobster]].^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[pōlypōsus]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}