polypus

English

Etymology

From Latin polypus, from Ancient Greek πολύπους (polúpous). Doublet of polyp.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑlɪpəs/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɒlɪpəs/
• Hyphenation: pol‧y‧pus

Noun

polypus (plural polypi or polypuses)

1. A medical phenomenon.
   1. (medicine) A polyp. [from 14th c.]
      • 1898, Werner's magazine, volume 20:

        The nasal passages should be carefully examined for symptoms of stegnosis, enlargement of the turbinated bones, polypi, etc.

   2. (hematology, pathology) A cardiac thrombus usually found post-mortem. [from 17th c.]
2. An aquatic creature.
   1. (obsolete) A tentacled cephalopod, such as an octopus, squid, or cuttlefish. [16th–19th c.]
      • 1818, Thomas Love Peacock, Nightmare Abbey, section VII:

        He had been becalmed in the tropical seas, and had watched, in eager expectation, though unhappily always in vain, to see the colossal polypus rise from the water, and entwine its enormous arms round the masts and the rigging.

      • 1830, Alfred Tennyson, “The Kraken”, in Poems, Chiefly Lyrical:

        From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
        Unnumbered and enormous polypi
        Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.

   2. (now rare) Any of various simple aquatic invertebrates having mouths surrounded by tentacles, including hydrozoa and anthozoa; including the sessile life stages of organisms whose corresponding free-swimming stage is the medusa. [from 18th c.]

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek πολύπους (polúpous) (or from Doric Ancient Greek πώλυπος (pṓlupos) for the variant with long ō).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈpoː.ly.pus/, [ˈpoːlʲʏpʊs̠] or IPA^(key): /ˈpo.ly.pus/, [ˈpɔlʲʏpʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpo.li.pus/, [ˈpɔːlipus]

Noun

pō̆lypus m (genitive pō̆lypī); second declension

1. octopus
2. cuttlefish
3. nasal tumor

Usage notes

• A variant with long ō is found occasionally in Ovid and Horace, perhaps to make the meter scan more easily; this variant has its origin in the Doric Greek form of the noun.

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	pō̆lypus	pō̆lypī
Genitive	pō̆lypī	pō̆lypōrum
Dative	pō̆lypō	pō̆lypīs
Accusative	pō̆lypum	pō̆lypōs
Ablative	pō̆lypō	pō̆lypīs
Vocative	pō̆lype	pō̆lypī

Descendants

• Italo-Romance:
  • Corsican: polpu, pulpu, porpu
  • Italian: polpo
    • → Esperanto: polpo
    • → Ido: polpo
  • Neapolitan: purpo
  • Sicilian: purpu, pruppu, puppu, pùippu
• North Italian:
  • Gallo-Italic:
    • Ligurian: pórpo
    • Piedmontese: pòrpo
    • Romagnol: pôlp
  • Friulian: folp
  • Venetan: folpo
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Old Catalan: polp
    • Catalan: pop (dialectal polp)
  • Old French: *puelve, *pueuve
    • Norman: puerve; pieuvre (Jersey, Guernsey)
      • → French: pieuvre
        • → Haitian Creole: pyèv
        • → Italian: piovra
  • Occitan: pofre
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Asturian: pulpu
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: polbo
    • Galician: polbo
    • Portuguese: polvo
  • Spanish: pulpo
• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian:
    • Campidanese: pulpu, pruppu
    • Logudorese: pulpu, pruppu
    • Nuorese: purpu, pruppu
• Borrowings:
  • → Catalan: pòlip
  • → German: Polyp
    • → Hungarian: polip
  • → English: polyp; polypus
  • → Middle French: poupe
    • French: poulpe
    • → English: poulp, poulpe
  • → French: polype
    • → Ottoman Turkish: پولیپ (polip)
      • Turkish: polip
    • → Romanian: polip
  • → Galician: pólipo
  • → Italian: polipo
  • → Portuguese: pólipo
  • → Spanish: pólipo

References

• “polypus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “polypus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• polypus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• polypus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.