Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Arthropod
/ˈɑːrθrəpɒd/noun
An invertebrate with an external skeleton, a segmented body and jointed limbs.
The Greek roots
ἄρθρον
árthron
joint
πούς
poús
foot
Literally: “jointed foot”
The story of the word
Siebold proposed Arthropoda in 1848 for animals whose legs bend at hinges instead of flexing along their length, which is what an external skeleton forces on you. ἄρθρον is a joint, the same word inside arthritis and arthroscopy. The group takes in insects, spiders, crabs and centipedes, and outnumbers every other phylum in the animal kingdom combined.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
arthritisarthroscopygastropodpodium
In a sentence
Every arthropod has to shed its skeleton to grow, and it is defenceless for a few hours afterwards.