-podcomb. form

Etymology: < classical and scientific Latin -pod-, stem of classical Latin -pūs, scientific Latin -pus, and its etymon ancient Greek -ποδ-, -πους, combining form (in e.g. ἑξάπους hexapod adj.) of ποδ- , πούς foot < the same Indo-European base as foot n. Compare -ped comb. form, -pode comb. form.Some formations with this suffix are attested as forms in -pode , by regular early modern spelling variation or after the Latin plural in -podes , or after -pode comb. form (see e.g. apod(e n.). Two 17th-cent. forms (apod(e n. and hexapod n.) are from classical Latin and ancient Greek respectively, but the great majority of similar forms are from scientific Latin taxonomic names in -poda , and were adopted into English in the 19th and, less often, the 20th cent. Plurals in -poda are also sometimes found for nouns not modelled on scientific Latin taxonomic names, as e.g. pleopoda , plural of pleopod n. Formations in sense 2 are found from the 19th cent. (see e.g. epipod n., gnathopod n., and mesopod adj.).