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.

My son has boxes of Safari Cards which parents subscribe to when their children are very young. The cards keep coming past kindergarten, grade school, and well into the college age. The number of various animals on earth being indeed enormous, the stream of cards never stops by itself. As a long term subscriber, I felt I am entitled to scan three cards with three different species in question. The exact number of the myriapoda is not properly known and their classification is very complex.

Centipede It's this one that has 42 legs. The body is segmented into 21 pieces each with a couple of legs, one on each side. The fellow is poisonous but inoffensive. Feels best in damps and very much subject to dehydration as the other varieties of the species. Of dehydration they die. Life span (in captivity) is estimated at 7 years which is exactly 2 months per leg.
Long-legged Centipede This fellow has only 30 to 40 legs and a relatively short body. In a strange kind of a way it's classified as related more to the millipedes than to the centipedes. It's fast though its legs are very fragile and easily broken when in motion. The limbs fast regenerate and the total amount of extremities possessed by a single individual over its life span may be considerable.
Millipede Millipedes may indeed deserve their name. The number of segments comprising their body and, hence, the number of legs increases with age. Molting is a regular occurrence throughout their life. Unlike snakes, e.g., the millipedes do not part with the shed cuticle but, instead, use it as an extra segment which with time dutifully acquires a pair of legs. Millipedes, of course, hold the world record for the number of legs. However, they are very slow movers.

Below are the results of an escape to a Border's bookstore where I checked the Reference bookshelves.

1. Czech
   Stonozka (= "one hundred small legs".)
2. Danish
   Tusindben
3. Dutch
   Duizendpoot
4. 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.)
5. French
   Millepattes
6. Gaelic
   Ceud-chasach (Ceud naturally enough means hundred. The meaning of chasach is hidden from. Cas, however, means leg.)
7. German
   
8. Greek
   where is just forty. The rest must be Greek for legs.
9. Hungarian
   Czázlábú
10. Italian
    Centopiedi⁽¹⁾
11. 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.)
12. Norwegian
    Tusenbein
13. Polish
    Stonoga (= "one hundred legs".)
14. Portuguese
    Centopeia (for centipede, millipede is mysteriously translated as embua)⁽²⁾
15. Russian
    where is plain forty, I must know. The rest means "a small leg."
16. Spanish
    Ciempiés
17. Swedish
    Tusenfoting
18. Turkish
    Kirkayak

Perhaps it's a deficiency of the dictionaries sold by Border's but only in Portuguese⁽²⁾ I found separate words for centipede and millipede. Later, on the Web, I found that in German, too, there are two words: hundertfuesser and tausendfuesser (not quite as above.) In French, both words are translated as "thousand-leg." Czech, Italian⁽¹⁾, Spanish, and Polish are more reasonable sticking with centipede. Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, and Swedish derive from millipede. Greek and Russian are champions of accuracy. They miss just 2 legs which should be preferred to the next best, 58.

As usual, the Hebrews showed more wisdom than the most. Their word

(marbe raglaim) stands for noncommittal the one with many legs but may also be translated as the one that grows legs. Latin usage (if correct) is also noncommittal and, in addition, hints that there is a lesson to be learnt from this subject.

If anyone is interested, http://www.portoeditora.pt/dol/ is a Portuguese dictionary that contains their definitions.

Mathematics as a Language

1. Plain English
2. Linguistics
3. Life Sciences
4. Physics and Chemistry
5. Deliberate misuse
6. Math Lingo: a bad meme virus
7. Mathematics Is a Language
8. What do you call a centipede?

Copyright © 1996-2008 Alexander Bogomolny