4 ms·

If someone at a party complained to me that octopuses is wrong and it should be octopi, I would most likely be moving on to the next table..

space_ghost 4y ago
And I would happily jump in your vacant seat and enjoy hours of pedantic discussions on the vagaries of silly English words.
- dmichulke 4y ago
  Pro tip: invite him for for pizzae
  - flyingfences 4y ago
    Dialectically, "pizza" is an uncountable and "pie(s)" is the unit.
    - harshbutfair 4y ago
      In Australia we would never refer to pizzas as pies. Is this a US-only thing or does it happen elsewhere?
      - OJFord 4y ago
        It's American to my British ear. I think they sometimes distinguish 'pizza pie' as being the deeper-pan Chicagoan style, which to be fair is a lot more like what I would call a pie than what I would call a pizza. (But also not really either.)
        thaumasiotes 4y ago
        "Pies" is most certainly not American. I have heard that it is supposedly specific to New York, but if you watch Friends (set in New York), you'll see frequent references to the Joey Special, "two pizzas". It's always possible that there are zero people who think of "pies" as an appropriate way to refer to pizzas, but the myth persists that weird foreign people do it. People will believe anything about weird foreigners. Or there might be weird foreign people doing it right now. It's hard to know.
        OJFord 4y ago
        Not? I'm confused who you're saying does call pizzas 'pies' (or 'pizza pies') then? I assure you some Americans certainly do, wherever they got it from, 'American' or not. I've only been exposed to it via American film/TV, including food shows - most recently Somebody Feed Phil in Chicago. I've never heard it in the UK. I'd be surprised to learn that Italians call them something else too that in other contexts translates as 'pie', but I'm not sure how relevant that would be anyway.
        thaumasiotes 4y ago
        > I'm confused who you're saying does call pizzas 'pies' (or 'pizza pies') then? I'm not saying anyone does that. I said so in my comment just above you. If I knew there were someone doing it, it would be hard for me to claim it was possible that zero people do it. You've never heard it in the UK. I've never heard it in the US. It's not a normal thing to say. None of that adds up to a claim that some people say it.
        OJFord 4y ago
        Ok well I am claiming some American people do say it. Neither of us can speak for the entirety of our respective countries, but certainly I have heard Americans saying it on television and film. In addition to the TV citation I gave above, see Wiktionary: > Noun > pizza pie (plural pizza pies) > 1. (US) A pizza. > [no further entries] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pizza_pie https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pizza_pie And the slew of pizza-based results for the search term 'chicago pizza': https://duckduckgo.com/?q=chicago+pie https://duckduckgo.com/?q=chicago+pie
Moissanite 4y ago
And you'd be right to do so - life is too short for spending time with people who are wrong: https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2022/02/01/plural-octopus/ https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2022/02/01/plural-octopus/

space_ghost 4y ago

And I would happily jump in your vacant seat and enjoy hours of pedantic discussions on the vagaries of silly English words.

dmichulke 4y ago
Pro tip: invite him for for pizzae
- flyingfences 4y ago
  Dialectically, "pizza" is an uncountable and "pie(s)" is the unit.
  - harshbutfair 4y ago
    In Australia we would never refer to pizzas as pies. Is this a US-only thing or does it happen elsewhere?
    - OJFord 4y ago
      It's American to my British ear. I think they sometimes distinguish 'pizza pie' as being the deeper-pan Chicagoan style, which to be fair is a lot more like what I would call a pie than what I would call a pizza. (But also not really either.)
      - thaumasiotes 4y ago
        "Pies" is most certainly not American. I have heard that it is supposedly specific to New York, but if you watch Friends (set in New York), you'll see frequent references to the Joey Special, "two pizzas". It's always possible that there are zero people who think of "pies" as an appropriate way to refer to pizzas, but the myth persists that weird foreign people do it. People will believe anything about weird foreigners. Or there might be weird foreign people doing it right now. It's hard to know.
        OJFord 4y ago
        Not? I'm confused who you're saying does call pizzas 'pies' (or 'pizza pies') then? I assure you some Americans certainly do, wherever they got it from, 'American' or not. I've only been exposed to it via American film/TV, including food shows - most recently Somebody Feed Phil in Chicago. I've never heard it in the UK. I'd be surprised to learn that Italians call them something else too that in other contexts translates as 'pie', but I'm not sure how relevant that would be anyway.
        thaumasiotes 4y ago
        > I'm confused who you're saying does call pizzas 'pies' (or 'pizza pies') then? I'm not saying anyone does that. I said so in my comment just above you. If I knew there were someone doing it, it would be hard for me to claim it was possible that zero people do it. You've never heard it in the UK. I've never heard it in the US. It's not a normal thing to say. None of that adds up to a claim that some people say it.
        OJFord 4y ago
        Ok well I am claiming some American people do say it. Neither of us can speak for the entirety of our respective countries, but certainly I have heard Americans saying it on television and film. In addition to the TV citation I gave above, see Wiktionary: > Noun > pizza pie (plural pizza pies) > 1. (US) A pizza. > [no further entries] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pizza_pie https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pizza_pie And the slew of pizza-based results for the search term 'chicago pizza': https://duckduckgo.com/?q=chicago+pie https://duckduckgo.com/?q=chicago+pie

Moissanite 4y ago

And you'd be right to do so - life is too short for spending time with people who are wrong: https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2022/02/01/plural-octopus/ https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2022/02/01/plural-octopus/