The Combining Form -pod

The Combining Form -pod The Combining Form -pod The Combining Form -pod By Maeve Maddox The Greek and Latin words for leg and foot have given English the combining form -pod. Some words formed with -pod entered English earlier, but a great many were coined in the nineteenth century as the study of entomology and paleontology expanded. Here are a few, with their literal meanings and the date of their earliest citation in the OED. arthropod 1861 (arthro=joint) Insects, spiders, and crustaceans are arthropods. cephalopod 1826 (cephal=head) Cephalopods are creatures like octopus and squid whose â€Å"legs† are attached directly to their heads. diplopod 1864 (diplo=double) Diplopods have numerous legs, attached in pairs on each segment of the body. Thousand-leggers (millipedes) are diplopods. gastropod 1826 (gastro=stomach) A snail is a gastropod. It moves along with a single muscular â€Å"foot† attached to its abdomen. hexapod 1668 (hex=six) Insects are hexapods. isopod 1835 (iso=equal) An isopod has seven pairs of equal and similarly placed thoracic legs. A familiar isopod is the roly-poly (aka woodlouse/pillbug). myriapod (myria=10,000) Some of these pod words overlap. A myriapod, like a diplopod, has a lot of legs attached in pairs to the segments of their bodies. octopod 1817 (octo=eight) Literally â€Å"eight-legged,† an octopod is a cephalopod with eight tentacles. ornithopod 1886 (ornith=bird) This name attaches to plant-eating dinosaurs with bird-shaped hips, three- or four-toed feet, powerful teeth and jaws and lack of such features as armor plating. polypod 1612 (poly=many) Any animal with several feet is a polypod. pseudopod 1874 (pseudo=false) The one-celled amoeba moves by extending bits of its central blob and using them as feet. pteropod 1833 (ptero=wing) These are sea mollusks whose â€Å"feet† have side projections that look like wings. Some pteropods have the lovely common names of â€Å"sea butterflies† and â€Å"sea angels.† sauropod 1884 (sauro=lizard) Literally â€Å"lizard-footed,† the sauropods were the really big dinosaurs, like Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus, and Brontosaurus. Note: The Diplodocus got its name from a peculiarity of its tail bones. The word combines diplo, double+ dokos, beam. theropod 1891 (ther=beast) Theropods are the carnivorous dinosaurs whose feet resembled those of quadrupeds rather than birds. Other English words contain the element pod as a prefix or suffix, but this post focuses on animals. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:10 Rules for Writing Numbers and NumeralsUsing the Active Voice to Strengthen Your Writing12 Misunderstood and Misquoted Shakespearean Expressions