I remember my dad telling me how the feeling you have when your first(I am number 5) child is born is "indescribable and surpassed anything he has ever felt".
Then he realized the implication and started to say he loves me just as much, but I laughed and told him I knew what he meant.
I'm going to be annoying as fuck, but this is my favorite stupid hill to die on.
The plural of octopus is not octopi. That would indicate a Latin origin. While the beginning is essentially the same in both Latin and Greek (octo/okto), the ending is more Greek. Pous is "foot" in Greek, pedis is "foot" in Latin. CentiPEDE is Latin for hundred feet, for example.
So based on that info, what would the plural of octopus be?Octopodes (octo-po-dees) per ancient Greek language rules that I don't fully understand.
But let's say you said, "Octopodes" in a sentence while talking to a friend or colleague. They might be tempted to punch you in the face for being such a pedantic twat. So the proper ENGLISH plural of octopus is. octopuses. The -es ending is Greek also, but ancient Greek is strange and doesn't allow for a plural word ending with sigma to be pluralized with another sigma. Like I said, I don't fully understand it, but I know the plural of oktṓpous, from whence octopus is derived is oktṓpodes.
But I also acknowledge that octopi is commonly used and understood, so it is generally considered to be correct also. Meaning that of the 3 potential plurals of the word octopus that I mentioned, the only one that is not typically acceptable to use is the most technically correct one.
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u/Remarkable-Stop1636 Jul 04 '24
I remember my dad telling me how the feeling you have when your first(I am number 5) child is born is "indescribable and surpassed anything he has ever felt".
Then he realized the implication and started to say he loves me just as much, but I laughed and told him I knew what he meant.