4 ms·

The alien in the TV series the resident alien is descended from octopii.

asveikau 2y ago
The plural of octopus is octopuses. But if you want to sound more latin, octopus is a third declension noun, and those have nominative plurals that tend to end in -es, rather than the second declension which ends in -us for singular or -i for plural. Third declension nouns whose nominative form ends in -s also tend to change their root's final consonant when you change the suffix. (Eg. opus -> opera. That one doesn't end in -es because it's neuter.) All this to say, the latin plural of octopus is octopodes.
- metalman 2y ago
  VS, octapie, which is what the females are dreaming of, instead of getting envenomated lively bunch, reclusive, come in all sizes, from extra tiny, to back off quick, and a whole other complex octapoid lifestyle I regularly interact with spiders, wolf spiders bieng my favorites by far, sometimes called jumping spiders, they are sight hunters and dont build webs, and seem to stay in a certain teritory for days or weeks, before moving on
- AngryData 2y ago
  Yeah sure but we don't speak latin, English is a hodgepodge of a dozen other languages, both dead and alive, and the only value that determines whether something is correct in english or not is common usage. And octopi is used often enough to not really be incorrect. You might as well be complaining that "ain't" isn't a word despite it clearly being so ever since Dickens used it.
  - koakuma-chan 2y ago
    What does ain't mean?
    - mrlonglong 2y ago
      Isn't. Ain't is UK.
      - asveikau 2y ago
        Ain't is also common in the US, but is stigmatized. In the US, it is regional to the east coast, both north and south. It is also common in African American speech.
  - asveikau 2y ago
    This is a specific case of trying to imitate the rules of Latin, incorrectly. Another one that we misunderstand a lot is virus. It looks like the typical second declension thing ending in -us. It is actually a rare categorization of word, the 4th declension. But it is a common occurrence in languages that when rules are complicated and confusing that they get generalized to simpler patterns from elsewhere in the language. Romance languages have done that to Latin too! I gave an example of opera being the plural of opus. A lot of romance languages have reinterpreted neuter plurals as feminine singulars, because of that -a suffix.
  - kennysoona 2y ago
    > And octopi is used often enough to not really be incorrect. By that logic irregardless is also not really incorrect.
- tricot 2y ago
  Why would he try to sound more latin when the word octopus does come from ancient greek? I think that's the cause for this common error. People assuming a word is latin just because it ends in '-us'.

The plural of octopus is octopuses. But if you want to sound more latin, octopus is a third declension noun, and those have nominative plurals that tend to end in -es, rather than the second declension which ends in -us for singular or -i for plural. Third declension nouns whose nominative form ends in -s also tend to change their root's final consonant when you change the suffix. (Eg. opus -> opera. That one doesn't end in -es because it's neuter.) All this to say, the latin plural of octopus is octopodes.

metalman 2y ago
VS, octapie, which is what the females are dreaming of, instead of getting envenomated lively bunch, reclusive, come in all sizes, from extra tiny, to back off quick, and a whole other complex octapoid lifestyle I regularly interact with spiders, wolf spiders bieng my favorites by far, sometimes called jumping spiders, they are sight hunters and dont build webs, and seem to stay in a certain teritory for days or weeks, before moving on
AngryData 2y ago
Yeah sure but we don't speak latin, English is a hodgepodge of a dozen other languages, both dead and alive, and the only value that determines whether something is correct in english or not is common usage. And octopi is used often enough to not really be incorrect. You might as well be complaining that "ain't" isn't a word despite it clearly being so ever since Dickens used it.
- koakuma-chan 2y ago
  What does ain't mean?
  - mrlonglong 2y ago
    Isn't. Ain't is UK.
    - asveikau 2y ago
      Ain't is also common in the US, but is stigmatized. In the US, it is regional to the east coast, both north and south. It is also common in African American speech.
- asveikau 2y ago
  This is a specific case of trying to imitate the rules of Latin, incorrectly. Another one that we misunderstand a lot is virus. It looks like the typical second declension thing ending in -us. It is actually a rare categorization of word, the 4th declension. But it is a common occurrence in languages that when rules are complicated and confusing that they get generalized to simpler patterns from elsewhere in the language. Romance languages have done that to Latin too! I gave an example of opera being the plural of opus. A lot of romance languages have reinterpreted neuter plurals as feminine singulars, because of that -a suffix.
- kennysoona 2y ago
  > And octopi is used often enough to not really be incorrect. By that logic irregardless is also not really incorrect.
tricot 2y ago
Why would he try to sound more latin when the word octopus does come from ancient greek? I think that's the cause for this common error. People assuming a word is latin just because it ends in '-us'.