Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Amphipod
/ˈæmfɪpɒd/noun
A small, sideways-flattened crustacean such as a sandhopper or freshwater shrimp.
The Greek roots
ἀμφί
amphí
on both sides
πούς
poús
foot
Literally: “footed both ways”
The story of the word
The name records a split in the legs: one set points forward for walking and grasping, another backward for swimming and springing. That is the direct contrast with the isopod, whose legs are all alike, and both names were coined in the same wave of early nineteenth-century crustacean classification. ἀμφί also encircles the amphitheatre, seating on both sides, and the amphibian, at home in both.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → New Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1830s
Same family
amphibianamphitheatreamphoraisopodpodium
In a sentence
Kick over dry seaweed on the tideline and the amphipods jump like popcorn.