4 ms·
(waiting for the recurring comments, that 2 x octopus -> octopodes or octopuses but not octopi since it's not latin 2nd declension, but rather misspelled greek)
by jjtheblunt 5y ago
(waiting for the recurring comments, that 2 x octopus -> octopodes or octopuses but not octopi since it's not latin 2nd declension, but rather misspelled greek)
- amelius 5y agoOctopus is already wrong in itself.
- colechristensen 5y agoLet’s not encourage the unnecessary language pedantry.
- totalZero 5y agoPedantry is no felony when discussing an eight-armed genius. I personally settle for nothing less than "octopodes," with the accent on the second of its four syllables.
- OJFord 5y agoI think 'octopodes' should be considered incorrect on the basis that the vast majority of even the people using it are probably not pronouncing it correctly.
- mc32 5y agoEh, as long as it rhymes with ‘tetrapods’, it’s accepted and current pronunciation.
- dragonwriter 5y agoDoesn't it actually come into English from Latin (in its later academic/international use, rather than the classical language)? But in any case, it's English, not Latin or misspelled Greek, and octopi seems to at least be the oldest evident English plural of octopus, AFAIK, though octopuses seems to be experiencing current popularity, and octopodes is just...no, though the suggestion once made that English ought to adopt octopods, wasn't bad, but never caught on.