Ancient Greek

Adjective

ὀκτώπους • ‎(oktṓpous) m, f ‎(neuter ὀκτώπουν); third declension

1. eight-footed

Noun

ὀκτώπους • ‎(oktṓpous) m ‎(genitive ὀκτώποδος); third declension

1. octopus

Inflection

Descendants

Many words for "octopus" in other languages are instead either calques of "eight-foot" or from Latin polypus or from Germanic Kraken. Some languages have more than one word for octopus from these sources, or from other sources altogether. Some of the languages that do have a word for "octopus" ultimately from this Ancient Greek source may also have a more primary term from another source.

• Arabic: أخطبوط ‎(ʼuḫṭubūṭ)
• Bulgarian: октоподи ‎(oktopodi)
• Czech: oktopoda
• Dutch: octopus
• English: octopus
  • Irish: ochtapas
• Greek: χταπόδι ‎(chtapódi)
  • plural: χταπόδια ‎(chtapódia)
• Kurdish: ahtepot
• Latin: octopus (plural octopodes)
• Persian: اختاپوس
• Serbo-Croatian: октопод (oktopod)
• Spanish: octopoda
• Turkish: ahtapot

References

• ὀκτώπους in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ὀκτώπους in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• «ὀκτώπους» in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• «ὀκτώπους» in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007) Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th-12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften