Curio
Today

octopus

OK-tuh-puhs · noun

Ancient GreekLatinEnglish

Origin

English octopus comes from Latin octōpūs, borrowed from Ancient Greek ὀκτώπους (oktṓpous), a compound of ὀκτώ (oktṓ, "eight") and πούς (poús, "foot").

This is Curio: one word's origin story, every morning. No feed, no backlog.

One short email each morning. Free; stop anytime. See a sample →

Journey

The word passed from Greek into Latin largely unchanged in form before settling into English, staying true to its original literal meaning throughout.

Related words

It's a piecewise doublet of octopod and octopede, both of which also combine the Greek root for "eight" with a word for "foot" or "foot-part."

More words

From Ancient Greek

Nearby, A–Z

All words A–Z →