8 ms·
The squid symbiosis is mentioned in the article. Oh and btw, it's octopuses or octopodes (greek not latin, fyi).
by kmonad 9y ago
The squid symbiosis is mentioned in the article. Oh and btw, it's octopuses or octopodes (greek not latin, fyi).
- PeCaN 9y agoActually it's English, where octopi is a perfectly acceptable and widely-understood plural.
- smnrchrds 9y agoMerriam-Webster dictionary disagrees: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/octopus https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/octopus
- colechristensen 9y agoWhat's popular isn't always correct and dictionaries by definition reflect usage. That is unless it doesn't literally kill you that literally now actually means figuratively too.
- dragonwriter 9y ago“Literally” doesn't actually mean figuratively, even in use; it's used (figuratively itself) as an intensifier applied to some other figurative expression. This actually has the opposite effect to “figuratively”, which by explicitly stating that a use is figurative acts as a qualifier, rather than an intensifier, of the figurative expression it modifies.
- gnaritas 9y ago> What's popular isn't always correct and dictionaries by definition reflect usage. What's popular is correct by definition, that's why dictionaries reflect usage, they don't prescribe it. Language is about communication, not syntax, people do use "literally" when they mean figuratively and you know it, I know it, so they are communicating, the word has obtained new meaning. Words are not static things.
- njarboe 9y agoSome cultures put more emphasis on the top down approach than others. France[1] tends to be more into top down control of its language than the English. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionnaire_de_l%27Acad%C3%A9mie_fran%C3%A7aise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionnaire_de_l%27Acad%C3%A9...
- burkaman 9y agoWhat's the point of being "correct" if nobody understands you?
- bunderbunder 9y agoI was walking across campus with a friend and we came upon half a dozen theoretical linguists committing unprovoked physical assault on a defenseless prescriptivist. My friend was shocked. She said: "Aren't you going to help?" I said, "No; six should be enough." (copypasted from http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002938.html http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002938.h...)
- chrisbennet 9y agoAdam Ruins Everything had a episode that covered this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu5XDrdD7KM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu5XDrdD7KM In short: The dictionary isn't the "law", it lags behind the language as it is actually used. Once the "reverse" definition of "literally" became common in usage it became the new definition - not what a dictionary used to define it as.
- ystvn 9y agoOxford Dictionary disagrees with Merriam-Webster: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/octopus https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/octopus
- contingo 9y agoThis whole discussion is somewhat moot as a real biologist would almost always write "species of octopus", singular.
- jjtheblunt 9y agoor, Latin 5th declension plural, also "species (plural) of octopus"
- pvaldes 9y agoBoth forms are correct and are used as synonyms although referring to different things. Octopoda is an order, Octopus is the common name of animals in this order. On the other hand, octopuses normally are solitary and bottom attached; squids like the jewel squids do that countershading by light. Octopuses do not need this kind of defense normally. On the other hand squid countershading will not work with its smartest predators.
- giarc 9y agoOh you are right. I only quickly read the first paragraph or two of that section about the light in the eyes.