Pereopod

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Any of the walking legs attached to the thorax of a crustacean such as a crab, lobster or shrimp
2. A jointed limb on the chest region of a crustacean that is used mainly for walking along the sea floor
3. One of the locomotory appendages borne on the thoracic segments of decapod and other crustaceans

Etymology: A pereopod is one of the walking legs attached to the thorax of crustaceans such as crabs, shrimp and lobsters, and the word is built from two parts that each describe the body. The first, "pereion", is the middle section of a crustacean's body, the segmented region behind the head that carries the legs; the second, "-pod", comes from Greek "pous", meaning "foot", the same root that gives English "octopus" and "tripod". Put together, the name simply means something like "thorax-foot", which makes it a plain descriptive coinage rather than a word with a dramatic backstory. The spelling "pereopod" is an alternative to "pereiopod", which keeps the vowel of "pereion" intact. Both forms share the same sense and the same construction, so the choice between them is a matter of spelling convention rather than meaning.

Synonyms: pereiopod