quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- platypus
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[platypus 词源字典] - platypus: [18] The platypus’s name means literally ‘flat-footed’. It was given to it at the end of the 18th century, and is first recorded in George Shaw’s Naturalists’ Miscellany 1799. It was adapted from Greek platúpous, a compound formed from platús ‘flat’ (source of English place, plaice, and plane the tree) and poús ‘foot’ (a relative of English foot).
=> foot, place, plane, plate[platypus etymology, platypus origin, 英语词源] - platypus (n.)
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- Australian duck-mole, 1799, from Modern Latin, from Greek platypous, literally "flat-footed," from platys "broad, flat" (see plaice (n.)) + pous "foot," from PIE root *ped- (1) "a foot" (see foot (n.)).
Orig. the generic name, but, having already been given to a genus of beetles, it was in 1800 changed for Ornithorhyncus. [OED]