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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 somethin
by 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 agoWhat does ain't mean?
- mrlonglong 2y agoIsn't. Ain't is UK.
- asveikau 2y agoAin'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 agoThis 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.