also millepede, type of many-legged hard-shelled arthropod, c. 1600, from Latin millepeda "wood louse," a type of crawling, insect-like arthropod, from mille "thousand" (see million) + pes (genitive pedis) "foot," from PIE root *ped- "foot." Probably a loan-translation of Greek khiliopous. The native name is thousand-legs. The number of legs is far from 1,000, though they are about twice as numerous as those of the centipede, but unlike some centipedes the millipede is quite harmless.
