octopodn.adj.
/ˈɒktəpɒd/, U.S. /ˈɑktəˌpɑd/ Chiefly Zoology.
A. n.
1. An animal or thing that has eight feet or legs (or leg-like appendages). rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > animal body > general parts > body and limbs > [noun] > paw or foot > animal with eight feet
octopod1817
octoped1822
1817 W. Kirby & W. Spence Introd. Entomol. II. xxii. 306 The mode of their walking depends upon the number and kind of their legs. With regard to these, insects may be divided into four natural classes; viz...Octopods, or those that have eight legs, including the tribes of mites (Acaridæ); spiders (Araneidæ); long-legged spiders (Phalangidæ); and scorpions.
1893 T. R. R. Stebbing Hist. Crustacea vii. 102 Hexapus, de Haan, 1835, is entirely devoid of the last pair of walking legs, so that instead of decapods these crabs have become octopods.
1975 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 72 4319/2 Spiders [of RNA] with 8 arms (octapods) were observed on grids of purified RNA, but were not characterized extensively.
1990 Managem. Computing Nov. 113/1 A burning flame greeted octopods, daleks and C3PO and R2D2 lookalikes at the University of Strathclyde last month, which played host to the first ever Robot Olympics.
2. Zoology. Any cephalopod mollusc of the order Octopoda, comprising the octopuses, which have eight tentacles, globular bodies, and lack an internal shell.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Triploblastica or Coelomata > class Cephalopoda > [noun] > order Dibranchiata > section Octopoda > member of
Eledone1835
octopod1836
octopodan1890
1836 R. Owen in Todd's Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. I. 523/1 Tribe Octopoda. The Dibranchiate Octopods.
1869 Amer. Naturalist 3 259 The Octopods, to which the Brazilian cuttle-fish..belongs, have round purse-like bodies, and eight arms united at the base with a web.
1910 H. de V. Stackpole Blue Lagoon ii. iv. 195 He was quite small, as octopods go, and young, yet he was large and powerful enough to have drowned an ox.
1978 Nature 12 Oct. 547/2 The rare deep-sea octopod Cirrothauma murrayi Chun 1910 was first described from a single specimen caught during the Michael Sars Expedition of 1910.
1988 Paleobiology 14 307/2 When increased amounts of armor no longer served, it was shed entirely in favor of greater mobility, toxicity, or behavioral sophistication by octapods, squids, and opisthobranch snails.
B. adj.
1. Eight-footed or eight-legged.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > animal body > general parts > body and limbs > [adjective] > of feet > having feet > having eight feet
octopod1821
octopodous1868
1821 W. S. MacLeay Horæ Entomologicæ ii. vi. 381 The type of the Acaridea, as well as of the other Arachnide orders, is..octapod.
1835–6 Todd's Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. I. 246/1 The Arachnidans are octopod.
1868 Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 2 78 The animal has the form of..a hexapod larva, followed by the stage of..octopod nymphæ without sexual organs.
2001 New Statesman 26 Feb. 30/1 A leathery expat told me..of the spider that traps birds merely in order to decorate its web with their feathers, a kind of octopod Jeffrey Dahmer.
2. Zoology. Of or relating to the order Octopoda of cephalopod molluscs, comprising the octopuses. Later (also): = octopoid adj. Cf. earlier octopodous adj.
ΚΠ
1869 Amer. Naturalist 3 258 I found clinging to my right hand, by his long arms, a large octopod cuttlefish.]
1903 Amer. Naturalist 37 138 The octopod genus Amphitretus has thus far been known only through a single specimen.
1930 I. Goldberg Tin Pan Alley xi. 314 The composer, like his publisher, faces an octopod monopoly.
1975 Nature 2 Oct. 380/2 The three remaining coleoid orders..include all the remaining living cephalopods, comprising 29 teuthoid..families, one vampyromorph family and 12 octopod families.
1996 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) B. 351 1048/1 Octopod beaks found in samples on a few occasions..confirmed that that this prey type is taken.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2004; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.adj.1817