My friend Sarah and I have argued (kind of; we both agree we're both right and we haven't disputed it much) over what the real plural of the word octopus is. The link above leads to an article which analyzes the three possible plurals of octopus, octopi, octopuses, and octopodes. Sarah claims the real plural is octopoden (I honestly don't know where she got the -oden part because that would make it a plural of a plural... hmm) and I read on several websites supporting octopus' that the plural is really octopuses.
"Generally speaking, most people probably progress through these categories over the course of their lives. At first, they chose octopuses, because English words ending in -s form a natural English plural with -es. Then, at some point, someone corrected their use of words in -us to employ the common Latin plural of -i, so they learned octopi either by being corrected from octopuses or else by assuming that octopus would follow that rule.
The author of the article begins talking about octopuses and octopi and how the two came out of English. He then goes to talk about how octopodes comes from Greek/Latin because of the roots of the word octopus.
"They learn that Latin is more complicated, and octopus is apparently from Greek, hence octopodes is supposedly more correct than octopi.
There's a lot of inside analysis of the rest, which I won't go into detail on (but be my guest and read the article, it's really informative!) and at the end, the author says which of the three is the best because he claims technically all three of them are correct.
"Well, octopus has one undisputed plural, namely octopuses, which is the native plural using -es. As far as my recommendations go, this is the only plural you should ever use...
"For those who use octopodes, stop being so smug. You have the “rules” of Latinized Greek words on your side... Claiming that octopodes is the only correct plural would be like claiming that foots is the only correct plural of foot because it follows the English “rules.”
"For those who use octopi, be aware that you are too on shaky ground. You are going against the “rules,” and your form goes against the historical precedent set by the guy who coined the word himself, who clearly preferred the standard Greek form of the Latin plural.
"In the end, just use octopuses. ... But they have absolutely no basis for calling your octopuses wrong, since there are plenty of historical reasons why their forms are also potentially wrong. In almost all cases, the native English plural is never an incorrect choice.
The author chooses
octopuses as the best plural of the word
octopus. While technically all three are correct,
octopuses is the
best. So ha, Sarah. And everyone else who laughs at me when I say
octopuses.
Now here are some cute pictures of octopuses! :D
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| Octopus! :D |
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| This is the Blue-Ringed Octopus, the only lethally poisonous octopus. This is my favorite octopus because of the vibrant blue rings that appear when the octopus is threatened. It also is relatively small and can fit in the palm of your hand! (Although you shouldn't hold it because of the poison) |
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| See how cute they are? :D |
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| The Giant Pacific Octopus or North Pacific Giant Octopus is the largest known octopus and have arm spans of about 14 feet. There have been documents of Giant octopuses weighing 600 pounds with an arm span of 30 feet though! |
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| The Octopus Wolfi is the smallest octopus in the world and most are only 0.6 inches in length! |
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| The Common Octopus is, as the name suggests, the most common octopus in the world. It is most commonly found in the Atlantic Ocean. |
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