-pod Also -poda, -pode, and -podium.
Foot or feet.
[Greek pous, pod-, foot.]
A few words in -pod refer to stands or supports with a given number of feet, such as tripod, a three-legged one for supporting a camera or other apparatus, and monopod, a one-legged support for a camera or fishing rod. However, the majority are names for animals, mostly crustaceans, having particular characteristics; for some common examples, see the list below.
All the examples in that list are members of groups whose systematic names end in -poda (Arthropoda, Gastropoda, Decapoda). Other examples are Chilopoda (Greek kheilos, lip), a class of myriapod arthropods which comprises the centipedes, and Scaphopoda (Greek skaphē, boat), a class of molluscs that comprises the tusk shells.
A small number of words end in the variant form -pode, such as megapode (Greek megas, great), a large ground-dwelling Australasian and SE Asian bird, and the antipodes (Greek anti, against), Australia and New Zealand as viewed by inhabitants of the northern hemisphere. Some others end in -podium, such as lycopodium (Greek lukos, wolf, because of the claw-like shape of the root), a plant of a genus that includes the common clubmosses; parapodium (Greek para-, subsidiary), each of a number of paired muscular bristle-bearing appendages in a polychaete worm.
Examples of words in -pod
Word origins are all from Greek.
| amphipod | a member of an order of chiefly marine crustaceans | amphi-, of both kinds, because some legs are specialized for swimming and some for feeding |
| arthropod | a member of a large phylum of invertebrate animals that includes insects, spiders, crustaceans, and their relatives | arthron, joint |
| brachiopod | a member of a phylum of marine invertebrates that comprises the lamp shells | brakhiōn, arm |
| branchiopod | a member of a class of small aquatic crustaceans that includes water fleas and fairy shrimps, which are distinguished by having gills upon the feet | brankhia, gills |
| cephalopod | a member of a large class of active predatory molluscs comprising octopuses, squids, and cuttlefish, which have a ring of tentacles around a beaked mouth | kephalē, head |
| copepod | a member of a large class of small aquatic crustaceans with paddle-like feet | kōpē, handle, oar |
| decapod | a member of an order of crustaceans which includes shrimps, crabs, and lobsters, which have five pairs of walking legs | deka, ten |
| gastropod | a member of a large class of molluscs which includes snails, slugs, whelks, and all terrestrial kinds | gastēr, gastr-, stomach, because of the position of the foot |
| hexapod | a member of a class of six-legged arthropods that comprises the insects | hex, six |
| macropod | a plant-eating marsupial mammal of an Australasian family that comprises the kangaroos and wallabies | makros, long, large |
| myriapod | an arthropod of a group that includes the centipedes, millipedes, and related animals | murias, muriad-, from murioi, 10,000 |
| ornithopod | a mainly bipedal herbivorous dinosaur | ornis, ornith-, bird |
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