- polyp
[polyp 词源字典] - polyp: [16] A polyp is etymologically a ‘manyfooted’ creature. The word originally signified ‘octopus’, but in the 18th century was broadened out into a general term for marine invertebrates with tentacles, such as hydras and sea anemones. It comes via French polype and Latin polypus from Greek polúpous ‘cuttlefish’, a compound formed from pólus ‘much, many’ and poús ‘foot’ (source of English pew and podium and related to English foot).
The metaphorical application of the word to a tumour growing from mucous membrane (an allusion to its tentacle-like outgrowths) originated in Greek. Greek pólus (a distant relative of English full and plural) is of course the starting point of many English poly- words, all with the underlying notion of ‘several’ – among them polyglot [17] (etymologically ‘many tongues’), polygon [16], polysyllable [16], and polytechnic [19].
And its plural, polloí ‘many’, is the origin of English hoi polloi [19], literally ‘the many’.
=> foot, full, hoi polloi, pedal, plural, plus, polygon[polyp etymology, polyp origin, 英语词源] - polyp (n.)
- c. 1400, "nasal tumor," from Middle French polype and directly from Latin polypus "cuttlefish," also "nasal tumor," from Greek (Doric, Aeolic) polypos "octopus, cuttlefish," from polys "many" (see poly-) + pous "foot," from PIE root *ped- (1) "a foot" (see foot (n.)). Etymological sense revived 1742 as a name for hydras and sea anemones (earlier polypus, early 16c.). The Latin word is the source of French poulpe "octopus."
