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octopus (lemmy.world)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[-] [email protected] 100 points 11 months ago
[-] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago

Octopodeez nuts

[-] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago
[-] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

Please don't beat your meat to octopodes

[-] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Hey, we're not hurting anyone!!!

[-] [email protected] 40 points 11 months ago

It is octopodes. It's Greek and it follows the Greek pluralisation convention.

[-] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

Words brought into English can use English pluralisations, so you're not wrong if you say octopuses. I think Grammar Girl had a take on this maybe 7 or even 8 years ago by now. These days, I can't see myself getting worked up about it for the sheer fun of being pedantic like I used to.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

It's not octopuses that octopodes corrects, it's octopi. Octopi is a Latin pluralization, and since the word is Greek and us to i isn't specifically American, I agree with you that octopuses is fine but not that octopi is fine.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Octopussy. Thank you very much.

[-] [email protected] 39 points 11 months ago
[-] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago

I knew there was going to be someone as ~~childish~~ funny as me in here!

[-] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago
[-] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

When a Roman family has their 16th child.

[-] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago

Octopus, octopuses, and octopodes are correct. Octopi incorrect.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Octopi is also correct. If anything, more correct than octopodes by virtue of popularity. Mismatching the language to the suffix does not a fake word make!

The downvoters are silly prescriptivists ;)

[-] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

In greek it would be incorrect, in english it's not worse than the others.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

As long as they’re penetrating a lady I don’t care what they are called.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

Ah, i see you are a man of culture as well.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago
[-] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

If you say ok-top-o-dees, you'd better be prepared to deliver this spiel at a moment's notice

HA! That video was really good. Extremely quick and to the point, great linguistics content, and funny to boot!

[-] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

Octopi is a hypercorrectism which doesn't make it wrong

[-] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

A hypercorrection based on a misunderstanding of the Latin declension for the word, at that.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Neither are incorrect, that’s the point

[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I just wanted to namedrop the technical term. Both are fine

[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

My favorite hypercorrection (a hyperforeignism, if you like) is "habañero," and really stressing the "ñ" when you say it.

Except it's just "habanero," plain ol' "n." The confusion is presumably due to "jalapeño" having an accent.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

If you want a hyper anglizism: I'm German and after an interview, a colleague of mine talked about the candidates' "vibes". My boss didn't get it's English and once she did, she pronounced it like "wipes". b>p at the end of words is what German always does and v>w to make it sound English since German has the /v/ sound but not /w/. I don't think it's a common thing tho.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

Octopussies

[-] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago
[-] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Wait is seriously everyone in here wrong?

Guys it's:
OCTOPEOPLE

Inclusion, let's keep it up.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

I am the guy in the middle, except I'm telling people it's octopuses.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

You do have the benefit of being right though.

The word octopus is a classical Greek word that comes to English via Latin. The Greek plural is octopodes, the Latin plural is octopi. But we don't speak Latin or classical Greek. We speak English. Because octopus is the English word for octopus it follows the English rules for pluralization, which is to add "s" or "es" to the end of the word. Cases can be made why octopi and octopodes could be technically correct, but for English speakers octopuses is the most correct.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Yeah, I did something for work where I had to study up about it and instead of being angry it's just kind of a fun fact. I don't actually mind what people say, I think everyone understands what you mean regardless.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago
[-] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Several of Octopus

[-] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Roger Moore would disagree.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

octopus - octopi
amogus - amogi
chungus - chungi

[-] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Why is octopi correct? Based on what?

[-] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

Because people use it, and if you say it everybody will understand without any ambiguity.

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[-] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Octopipuses?

[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Imagine speaking correct English

[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

When I document code I have this problem with indices vs indexes.

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[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Btw is there a difference between people.and persons? I hear both being used but i grew up with people.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

people = a group

persons = a group of individuals

[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Great question. When I hear people I think that’s used to draw attention to common relevant traits “people of England” for example. Persons is more a group of less related individuals or at least with less relevant similarities “persons of interest” for example

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this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2024
199 points (87.8% liked)

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