‖ metapodium
(mɛtəˈpəʊdɪəm)
[mod.L., f. Gr. µετα- meta- + ποδ-, πούς foot.]
1. Anat. = metatarsus.
| 1856 in Mayne Expos. Lex. |
2. The posterior lobe of the foot in molluscs. Also anglicized metapode (ˈmɛtəpəʊd).
| 1853 Huxley in Phil. Trans. CXLIII. i. 36 The tail or metapodium is subcylindrical at its base. 1875 Nicholson Man. Zool. xlvii. (ed. 4) 342 In the Heteropoda..and in the Wingshells (Strombidæ), the foot exhibits a division into three portions—an anterior, the ‘propodium’; a middle, the ‘mesopodium’; and a posterior lobe, or ‘metapodium’. |