centipede
(W3)

• centipedes
• common centipede
• earth centipede
• European house centipede
• giant centipede
• giant centipede
• house centipede
• orangefooted centipede
• purple stone centipede
• red stone centipede
• Westwood's green centipede

centipede

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• 1 dialog = 2 monologs
• 5 dialogs = 1 decalog
• 2 monograms = 1 diagram
• 8 nickels = 2 paradigms
• 2 wharves = 1 paradox
• 1 millionth of a fish = 1 microfiche
• 1 trillion pins = 1 terrapin
• 1 million billion picolos = 1 gigolo
• 10 rations = 1 decoration
• 100 rations = 1 C-ration
• 10 "millipedes" = 1 "centipede"
• 3 1/3 tridents = 1 decadent
• 10 cards = 1 decacards
• 1000 grams of wet socks = 1 literhosen
• One acre = 43,560 square feet = a lotsa toes

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"Barthropods" seeking "silverfish"

Today’s Wayno / Piraro Bizarro, a complex composition in which two "centipedes" look for bar snacks:

First bit of language play: the portmanteau "barthropod" = "bar" + "arthropod" [zool. "arthropod" = dt. "Gliederfüßler", engl. "arthropods" = dt. "Arthropoden"], "centipedes" being arthropods, creatures in the gigantic phylum "Arthropoda" — also encompassing insects (including silverfish and springtails as well as flies, butterflies and moths, beetles, and more), spiders. crustaceans (among them, shrimp, crabs, lobsters, and barnacles), and "millipedes" (if you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 3 in this strip — see this Page)

Then there’s a more subtle bit of language play in silverfish serving as bar snacks in a world in which centipedes drink in bars — given that Goldfish crackers (gold fish, silver fish, bring out the bronze) are often served as bar snacks in the real world.
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       _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _(.--.)
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 jgs  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>`--'>

• Banded Desert Centipede (1)
• Centipede (13)
• Centipedes (1)
• Cherry Red Centipede (1)
• Chilean (chile Blue) Centipede (1)
• Galapagos Centipede (1)
• Large centipede (2)
• Malaysian Cherry-legged Centipede (2)
• Red-headed Centipede (1)
• Soil Centipede (5)
• Stone Centipede (3)
• Unidentified House Centipede (1)

centipede - arthropod

What do you call a centipede?

In the chapter The Language of Numbers of his book The Number Sense, S.Dehaene mentions an arthropod that is popularly known in English as centipede while in French its name is millepattes (thousand-leg). In reality, the fellow has only 42 legs.

In English there are actually two words, "centipede" and "millipede" symbolizing although related but still different arthropods. Both belong to the class of myriapods. I can't be sure but the latter term seems to originate appropriately from myriad, which is a very large, indefinite number; innumerable, with the Greek source murias - ten thousand, or murios - countless.
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• Czech: Stonozka (= "one hundred small legs".)
• Danish: Tusindben
• Dutch: Duizendpoot
• Esperanto: Skolopendro (I doubt this translation from travlang's Translating Dictionaries which is a fantastic online convenience. By the sound of it, if correct, the word is probably supposed to mean a school (like in a school of fish) of appendages.)
• French: Millepattes
• Gaelic: Ceud-chasach (Ceud naturally enough means hundred. The meaning of chasach is hidden from. Cas, however, means leg.)
• German: Tausendfüßler
• Greek: where is just forty. The rest must be Greek for legs.
• Hungarian: Czázlábú
• Italian: Centopiedi(1)
• Latin: Scolopendra (This comes from the same online dictionary and appears to lend support to Esperanto. However, I am not aware of Latin usage of the word schola (scola) to denote a multitude of things.)
• Norwegian: Tusenbein
• Polish: Stonoga (= "one hundred legs".)
• Portuguese: Centopeia (for centipede, "millipede" is mysteriously translated as embua)(2)
• Russian: where is plain forty, I must know. The rest means "a small leg."
• Spanish: Ciempiés
• Swedish: Tusenfoting
• Turkish: Kirkayak
• Albanian: Shumëkëmbësh, dyzetkëmbësh
• Bulgarian: (meaning 100 legs)
• Croatian: Stonoga
• Estonian: Sadajalgne
• Filipino: Alupihan
• Finnish: juoksujalkainen, tuhatjalkainen
• Galician: Centopéia
• Indonesian: Kalalipan, halipan, lipan, lintibang
• Latvian: Simtkajis
• Lithuanian: Šimtakojai
• Romanian: Centiped
• Serbian: (meaning 100 legs)
• Slovak: (meaning 100 legs, sounds an authentic Russian to me)
• Slovenian: Stonoga
• Turkish: Kirkayak

35 Numerical Prefixes By Mark Nichol This post lists prefixes of Greek and/or Latin provenance used in expressions of numerical relationships, with examples.

• 1. "uni-" : "one" ("unicycle")
• 2. "mono-" : "one" ("monogamy")
• 3. "du-" : "two" ("duplicate")
• 4. "duo-" : "two" ("duopoly")
• 5. "deuter-" : "two" ("deuterium")
• 6. "deutero-" : "two" ("deuterograph")
• 7. "bi-" : "two" ("bicycle") or "twice" ("biannual")
• 8. "di-" : "two" ("dilemma")
• 9. "tri-" : "three" ("triangle")
• 10. "quadr-" : "four" ("quadrant")
• 11. "tetra-" : "four" ("tetrahedron")
• 12. "quin-" : "five" ("quintet")
• 13. "quinque-" : "five" ("quinquelateral")
• 14. "penta-" : "five" ("pentathlon")
• 15. "sex-" : "six" ("sextuplets")
• 16. "hexa-" : "six" ("hexagram")
• 17. "sept-" : "seven" ("septuagenarian")
• 18. "hept-" : "seven" ("heptarchy")
• 19. "oct-" : "eight" ("octennial")
• 20. "octo-" : "eight" ("octopus")
• 21. "nona-" : "nine" ("nonary")
• 22. "nove-" : "nine" ("novennial")
• 23. "novem-" : "nine" ("novemdecillion")
• 24. "ennea-" : "nine" ("enneagram")
• 25. "dec-" : "ten" ("decennial")
• 26. "decem-" : "ten" ("decemvirate")
• 27. "deca-" : "ten" ("decade")
• 28. "cent-" : "hundred" ("centipede")
• 29. "hect-" : "hundred" ("hectare");
• 30. "hecto-" : "hundred" ("hectoliter")
• 31. "mill-" : "thousand" ("million")
• 32. "mille-" : "thousand" ("millennial")
• 33. "kilo-" : "thousand" ("kilowatt")
• 34. "chili-" : "thousand" ("chiliad")
• 35. "myri-" : "ten thousand" ("myriad")

centipede

"centipede": Small worm-like creature like a lot of small legs. Latin "centipeda" - "centum" = "a hundred" + "ped" = "foot".

"centipede" (n.)

"venomous, many-legged, insect-sized arthropod", 1630s (earlier in English in Latin form "centipeda", by 1530s, "centipes" 1560s), from French "centipède", from Latin "centipeda" = "many-footed arthropod", from centum "hundred" (see "hundred") + "pedis", genitive of "pes" = "foot" (from PIE root "*ped-" = "foot"). Related: "Centipedal".

Wise, H. A. (Henry Augustus), 1819-1869

Gringo, Harry

Captain Brand of the "Centipede"

A Pirate of Eminence in the West Indies: His Love and Exploits, Together with Some Account of the Singular Manner by Which He Departed This Life (English) (as Author)

House Centipede

Centipede

Etymology: Latin "centipeda", from "centi-" + "ped-", "pes" = "foot" — more at FOOT

First Known Use: 1601, in the meaning defined above

1601: ..., "centipeda", ...

"centipede grass", noun: a grass (Eremochloa ophiuroides) introduced into the southern U.S. from China especially for lawn use
...

"centipede plant", noun: an erect shrub (Homalocladium platycladum) of the islands of the Pacific with flat ribbonlike jointed stems and with leaves only on the young branches - called also "ribbon bush", "tapeworm plant"
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"garden centipede", noun: a minute symphilid (Scutigerella immaculata) that often infests the underground parts of truck and greenhouse crops - called also "garden symphilid"
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"green sea centipede", noun: a sea centipede (Crabyzos longicaudatus)

"house centipede", noun: a widespread long-legged centipede (Scutigera coleoptrata) common in damp sheltered places (as the cellars of buildings) and believed to be valuable as a destroyer of flies, roaches, and other noxious insects

"sea centipede", noun - Australia: any of several marine isopods

"water centipede", noun: HELLGRAMMITE

Limericks on "Centipede"

Limericks on "centipede effect"

We found 33 dictionaries that include the word "centipede":

"Bugaboos"

I'm a couple of weeks late learning about the "copepods" in New York City's water, which the original complaint apparently called "insects", and which the International Herald Tribune refers to as "bugs". The University of Michigan's Animal Diversity Web makes it clear that these oar-footed critters are aquatic crustaceans, and not insects at all. Second cousins once removed of insects, at best. The phylum "arthropoda" splits into subphyla that include "crustacea" and "uniramia"; there are five classes of "crustaceans", of which the "maxillopoda" are one; and the "maxillopods" include "barnacles", "copepods", "mystacocarids", "tantulocarids", "branchiurans", "ostracods", and related groups". Down the other branch of the arthropod family, the "uniramian" subphylum includes "millipedes", "centipedes", and insects as classes.

The Smithsonian has a great copepod page, with pictures and a lot of other interesting information (though there are no recipes :-)).

Whether or not copepods are bugs is less clear. Middle English "bugge" is thought to have been derived from Welsh "bwg" = "ghost", and originally meant "object of terror, usually imaginary", a sense that survives only in forms like "bugbear", "bugaboo", "bogey" and "boggle". At some point, the word came to be used for insects, especially members of the order "heteroptera", which biologists call "true bugs".

The other extended senses of bug are varied, specific, and curiously unrelated to one another. The OED's compilation includes:

• a. "A person obsessed by an idea; an enthusiast." (e.g. litterbug, firebug).
• b. "A defect or fault in a machine, plan or the like."
• d. "A microbe or germ; also, a disease."
• f. "A concealed microphone."

The OED provides citations for sense 3.b. from 1889 on:

1889 Pall Mall Gaz. 11 Mar. 1/1 Mr. Edison, I was informed, had been up the two previous nights discovering "a bug" in his phonograph - an expression for solving a difficulty, and implying that some imaginary insect has secreted itself inside and is causing all the trouble.

and more of the history is available in the current edition of the Jargon Lexicon, which points out that "in jargon the word ["bug"] almost never refers to insects. Here is a plausible conversation that never actually happened: 'There is a bug in this ant farm!' 'What do you mean? I don't see any ants in it.' 'That's the bug.'"

In this sense, the "copepods" in the New York City water supply are bugs. At least, they're certainly not features.

Posted by Mark Liberman at 06:48 AM

June 12, 2004

The Centipede

King, Edith L. M. (1871 - 1962)

"centipede": chiefly nocturnal predacious arthropod having a flattened body of 15 to 173 segments each with a pair of legs, the foremost pair being modified as prehensors
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• centipede chiefly nocturnal predacious arthropod having a flattened body of 15 to 173 segments each with a pair of legs, the foremost pair being modified as prehensors
• Chilopoda arthropods having the trunk composed of numerous somites each bearing one pair of legs: centipedes
• class Chilopoda arthropods having the trunk composed of numerous somites each bearing one pair of legs: centipedes
• family Geophilidae small extremely elongate centipedes that live in earth
• garden centipede minute arthropod often infesting the underground parts of truck-garden and greenhouse crops
• genus Geophilus type genus of the Geophilidae: a cosmopolitan genus of centipedes sometimes called earwigs
• genus Scutigerella garden centipedes
• Geophilidae small extremely elongate centipedes that live in earth
• Geophilomorpha small elongate centipedes living in soil and under stones and having more than 30 pairs of legs
• Geophilus type genus of the Geophilidae: a cosmopolitan genus of centipedes sometimes called earwigs
• house centipede long-legged centipede common in damp places as e.g. cellars
• myriapod general term for any terrestrial arthropod having an elongated body composed of many similar segments: e.g. "centipedes" and "millipedes"
• order Geophilomorpha small elongate centipedes living in soil and under stones and having more than 30 pairs of legs
• prehensor the anterior pair of legs of a centipede that are modified to seize prey and inject venom from the toxicognaths
• Scutigera coleoptrata long-legged centipede common in damp places as e.g. cellars
• Scutigerella garden centipedes
• superclass Myriapoda used in some classifications to encompass the "millipedes" (Diplopoda) and centipedes (Chilopoda); formerly a large taxon including also the Pauropoda and Symphyla; the term Myriapoda now usually used synonymously with Diplopoda and limited to the "millipedes"
• toxicognath either of a pair of poison fangs in the modified front pair of legs of the centipede

Where Do Centipedes Come From: Tracing Their Origins

"centipede"

1. A venomous predatory "arthropod" of the order "Chilopoda", characterized by one pair of legs per leg-bearing segment. The venom is injected through the first pair of leg-like appendages, modified into piercing claws; the bites may be painful and locally necrotic, but seldom are dangerous, except to very young children. Genera found in the U.S. include "Scutigera", "Lithobius", "Scolopendra", and "Geophilus".

2. A name given to wingless vermiform articulated animals having many feet, constituting the order "Cheilopoda" of the class "Myriapoda". Those of tropical countries are very venomous.

This entry is located in the following units:

"centi-", "cent-" (page 2)

"ped-", "pedi-", "-pedal", "-ped", "-pede", "-pedia" (page 2)

(Latin: "foot", "feet"; people often see this ped element in other words. When people refer to "pedal extremities", they mean "feet". When anyone pushes the "pedals" of a bicycle, it is done with the "feet". A pedestrian must use the feet for walking. A quadruped has four feet while a "centipede" has "100 feet"; or a large number of them because it may be impossible to count all of them.)

"centi-", "cent-" (Latin: "hundred"; a decimal prefix used in the international metric system for measurements) (one matching result)

"ped-", "-pedia" ("foot", "feet") words: aliped to "octoped", part 1 of 2 (one matching result)

• centipede
• centipede grasses
• centipedegrass
• centipede-grass
• centipedes
• centipeds
• house centipede
• sea centipede
• sea centipedes

Rebbie Jackson - Centipede