Etymology

quadruped

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Today it means: A four-footed or four-legged animal. Full definition →

French quadrupède ← Latin quadrupedem ← Proto-Italic *kʷetrupōts
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*kʷetwóres
  2. Proto-Indo-European*kʷetwr̥-
  3. Proto-Italic*kʷetru-
  4. Proto-Indo-European*ped-
  5. Proto-Indo-European*pṓds
  6. Proto-Italic*pets
  7. Proto-Italic*kʷetrupōts
  8. Latinquadrupedem
  9. Frenchquadrupède
  10. English todayquadruped

Borrowed from French quadrupède, from Middle French, from Latin stem of quadrupēs (“four-footed, a four-footed animal”), from quadri- (“four-”) + stem of pes (“foot”). Alternatively analyzable as quadru- + -ped. Doublet of tetrapod.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.