polypus
(ˈpɒlɪpəs)
Forms: 5–8 polipus, 6 polippus, polipos, 6– polypus. Pl. polypi (-paɪ); also (7 polypodes, polipusses), 8 polypuses (-pusses).
[a. L. pol-, pōlypus, -pi cuttle-fish, etc., also polypus in the nose, a. Doric or æolic Gr. πωλύπος, gen. -που = Ionic πουλύπους (acc. -οδα and -ουν), Attic πολύπους a cuttle-fish, etc., also polypus in the nose, f. πολυ- many + πούς foot.]
1. a. A cuttle-fish, an octopus; = polyp 1 a. Obs. (exc. in allusion to Lat. or Gr.).
| c 1520 Andrew Noble Lyfe lxvii, Polippus hath gret strength in his fete, what he therin cacheth, he holdeth it fast. 1603 Sir C. Heydon Jud. Astrol. v. 153 This Polypus can change himselfe into all colours. 1635 Swan Spec. M. viii. i. (1643) 378 These Polypodes suddenly prey upon them [fish] and devoure them. 1694 Motteux Rabelais iv. ii. (1737) 9 The Sea-pulp, or Polypus. 1839 T. Beale Nat. Hist. Sperm Whale 57 The octopus..was the animal denominated polypus by Aristotle. 1877 Bryant Odyssey v. 518 To the claws of polypus, Plucked from its bed, the pebbles thickly cling. |
b. = polyp 1 b, c. Now rare or Obs.
| [1693 tr. Blancard's Phys. Dict. (ed. 2), Polypodes, Sows, Hog-lice.] 1742 Phil. Trans. XLII. 219 A small Insect called a Polypus, which is found sticking to the common Duck-weed. a 1759 Sir C. H. Williams Isabella Odes (1780) 7 It's call'd a Polypus..And 'tis a reptile of so strange a sort, That if 'tis cut in two, it is not dead; Its head shoots out a tail, its tail a head. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 160 Those who have changed their opinion..upon the sexes of blossoms, or upon the hatching of polypuses. 1828 Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. II. 417 The class of Polypi or Zoophytes is one of the largest and most singular of the Animal Kingdom. 1845 Darwin Voy. Nat. i. (1852) 99 Each polypus, though closely united to its brethren, has a distinct mouth, body and tentacula. |
2. Path. A general term for tumours of various kinds, arising from a mucous or serous surface, usually pedunculated, and having ramifications like the tentacles of a polyp. Also formerly applied to a fibrinous blood-clot occurring in the heart or blood-vessels. Cf. polyp, polype 2.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vii. xxii. (Bodl. MS.), Polipus is a superfluite of flessch growing of þe nostrelles. 1578 Lyte Dodoens ii. cxii. 305 Being layd to with Copperous..it taketh away..the Polypus growing in the Nosthrilles. 1707 Floyer Physic. Pulse-Watch 118 In a Polypus the Pulse intermits, and vibrates, and is obscure. 1732 Arbuthnot Rules of Diet in Aliments, etc. 265 Being mix'd with the Blood in the Veins would produce Polypus's in the Heart, and Death. 1797 M. Baillie Morb. Anat. (1807) 367 By a polypus is meant a diseased mass, which adheres to some part of the cavity of the uterus, by a sort of neck or narrower portion. 1878 T. Bryant Pract. Surg. I. 110 Forms of softer polypi and cutaneous pendulous tumours. 1961 R. D. Baker Essent. Path. xvi. 390 Adenomatous polyps and gastric polyposis are quite like their counterparts in the large bowel. The polypi are pedunculated or sessile and are composed of mucosa like that of the gastric wall. 1974 Passmore & Robson Compan. Med. Stud. III. xix. 52/2 A subtotal gastrectomy is recommended if the polypi occur in the mid and lower stomach. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as (in sense 1 a) polypus-arms n. pl., polypus-fish; (in sense 1 b) polypus-like, polypus-wise advs.; (in sense 2) polypus-growth.
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 121 Whom Oppianus compareth to the Polypus fish. 1789 Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France, etc. II. 60 The polypus fish, who..extend their arms for prey. 1809 Coleridge Lett., to T. Poole (1895) 552, I will divide them polypus-wise, so that the first half should get itself a new tail of its own, and the latter a new head. 1815 Simond Tour Gt. Brit. II. 199 London extends its great polypus-arms over the country around. 1865 Pusey in Liddon, etc. Life (1897) IV. iii. 80 We cannot divide Holy Scripture or Christianity, polypus-like, so that one part might be cut off, and the rest remain in the same life as before. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 689 Every characteristic of ordinary polypus growth. |