Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Metamorphosis
/ˌmɛtəˈmɔːrfəsɪs/noun
A complete change of form, especially an insect's development from larva to adult.
The Greek roots
μετά
metá
change, after
μορφή
morphḗ
form, shape
Literally: “change of form”
The story of the word
Ovid's Latin poem carries the Greek title: fifteen books of people turned into trees, birds and stones. Naturalists took the same word in the 17th century for what a caterpillar does inside its case, which is a change no less total. μορφή also stands behind morphine, named for Morpheus, the dream-god who takes whatever shape he likes.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1530s
Same family
morphologyamorphousmorphineanthropomorphic
In a sentence
The tadpoles finished their metamorphosis in about nine weeks.