What is the plural form of Octopus?

[DeadWolfe]

I'm stumped.

 

[Math Is Hard]

It's "moose".

 

[Evo]

Moose...

 

[Gelsamel Epsilon]

Yup it's just plain old Moose.

"Oh look there is a bunch of Moose/Sheep/etc."

 

[neutrino]

Meese.

 

[berkeman]

Same as the plural of deer. Well, thematically anyway.

 

[Rach3]

Mice. ...[/color]

 

[berkeman]

Strange coincidence. Tonight we had a debate about what the plural of octopus is -- it took us a while to find a dictionary. I had everybody convinced it was octopi, until my wife found her (hidden) dictionary and proved that it is octupuses. Doh!

 

[scott1]

English:Mooses.
Binary:01001101 01101111 01101111 01110011 01100101 01110011
Leet:|\/|0053rz

 

[Rach3]

Strange coincidence. Tonight we had a debate about what the plural of octopus is -- it took us a while to find a dictionary. I had everybody convinced it was octopi, until my wife found her (hidden) dictionary and proved that it is octupuses. Doh!

Silly, it's both.

Inflected Form(s): plural -pus·es or oc·to·pi

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/octopus

 

[Gelsamel Epsilon]

I imagine the different plurals are for different english (Australian/English/American) I was always taught that things like platypus and octopus etc. turned to platypi and octopi for plural.

 

[Rach3]

I'm rather sure it was originally octopi inheriting the Latin declension, and octopuses was a bastardization. Some people would say adding the "es" makes it a standardization, because it agrees with some other plural forms. I call it bastardization.

 

[Rach3]

Why do they think that standardization makes language more accessible, I wonder. American-English speakers already take the path of least resistance.

 

[chronon]

I'm rather sure it was originally octopi inheriting the Latin declension, and octopuses was a bastardization.

pl. octopuses, (arch.) octopodes (octopi is wrong)

Some people would say adding the "es" makes it a standardization, because it agrees with some other plural forms. I call it bastardization.

Actually octopi is such a 'standardization'.

 

[Rach3]

http://www.bartleby.com/61/86/O0028600.html
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=54908&dict=CALD

Also agree with Webster, and disagree with Chambers. Eh, whatever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus
There's an order octopoda, and a genus octopus. Octopoda is already a plural form, a octopodes is a plural of a transliteration I guess. Who cares really. The question is - is the common name pluralized the same way as the genus?

From the first link above, this should settle it:

ETYMOLOGY: New Latin Octopus, genus name, from Greek oktpous, eight-footed : okt, eight; see okt(u) in Appendix I + pous, foot; see ped- in Appendix I.

(some symbols are not showing up in quote)

As for common usage:

Results 1 - 10 of about 796 for octopi
Results 1 - 10 of about 82 for octopodes

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=octopi&btnG=Search

 

[berkeman]

I'm rather sure it was originally octopi inheriting the Latin declension, and octopuses was a bastardization. Some people would say adding the "es" makes it a standardization, because it agrees with some other plural forms. I call it bastardization.

Oh baby. This should be good. Well, not good for the mairrage (sp?), but good overall. Wish me luck!

 

[Evo]

Lets standardize.

Octopus = octopuses

Moose = mooses

mouse = mouses

goose = gooses

 

[Brinx]

Heh.

Tooth, teeth.
Goose, geese.
Foot, feet.

and so:

Shoop, sheep.
Moose, meese.

also:

Mouse, mice.
Louse, lice.

and so:

House, hice.
Spouse, spice.

Langauge is so wonderfully inconsistent. :D

 

[Kurdt]

I thought octopi was what you got as a main course in a Greek restaurant.

On the serious note I was always taught octopi was the plural and the English language is a strange thing as it adds new words all the time including slang terms and and popular uncorrect terms. This makes the language very diverse and also full of tripe. It would never occur in most other languages. (spot the deliberate mistake)

 

[chronon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus

From lower down on that page

Fowler's Modern English Usage states that "the only acceptable plural in English is octopuses", and that octopi is misconceived and octopodes pedantic. Octopi derives from the mistaken notion that octōpūs is a second declension Latin noun, which it is not.

Maybe we should start using octopera on the basis of opus - opera .

 

[BobG]

Strange coincidence. Tonight we had a debate about what the plural of octopus is -- it took us a while to find a dictionary. I had everybody convinced it was octopi, until my wife found her (hidden) dictionary and proved that it is octupuses. Doh!

That's why trucks only carry one octupus at a time.

4 penguins perish in freak Texas truck accident - Octopus unhurt, exotic fish not as lucky en route to temporary home

Why hasn't Pengwino posted today?

 

[Danger]

(spot the deliberate mistake)

On the serious note

...[/color]

 

[berkeman]

That's why trucks only carry one octupus at a time.

4 penguins perish in freak Texas truck accident - Octopus unhurt, exotic fish not as lucky en route to temporary home

Why hasn't Pengwino posted today?

Notice how they don't even mention if the driver was hurt? Typical.

BTW, this part of the article was especially funny:

“There was another truck full of snakes and alligators that was an hour ahead of them, so luckily we didn’t have to deal with the alligators,” Buchanan said.

 

[Rach3]

From lower down on that page



Maybe we should start using octopera on the basis of opus - opera .

Oops! Octopera it is then.

 

[Chi Meson]

Do not fret Rach3, we'll get the wee bastards yet!

 

[BobG]

Notice how they don't even mention if the driver was hurt? Typical.

BTW, this part of the article was especially funny:

http://www.team4news.com/Global/story.asp?S=5256451&nav=0w0v

Better? (At least they got around to mentioning the driver in the second to last sentence). It even has a picture (the creature under the sheet that had the life support removed looks pretty flat )

Edit: BTW, is 'pluaral' supposed to be plural for 'plural' or something?

 

[Math Is Hard]

http://www.team4news.com/Global/story.asp?S=5256451&nav=0w0v

Better? (At least they got around to mentioning the driver in the second to last sentence). It even has a picture (the creature under the sheet that had the life support removed looks pretty flat )

Oh NO! That's terrible! They were going to one of my favorite places, Moody Gardens aquarium in Galveston. Poor critters.

 

[Rach3]

Edit: BTW, is 'pluaral' supposed to be plural for 'plural' or something?

Nope, plural is not plural, plural is plurals.

 

[Danger]

Nope, plural is not plural, plural is plurals.

All I know is that the breathing disorder is called 'pleuresy' because we have 2 lungs.

 

[star.torturer]

what about the fish (not fishes, that's blasphemy, and standardisation!)

Virus? (viri or viruses(standard))

 

[selfAdjoint]

On the serious note I was always taught octopi was the plural and the English language is a strange thing as it adds new words all the time including slang terms and and popular uncorrect terms. This makes the language very diverse and also full of tripe. It would never occur in most other languages

There is a general theory of why this happens and it does happen in all languages. When new words are added based on old words, the old rules of syntax are dropped and the standard rule of the new language are applied. The example I remember is "Toronto Maple Leafs", not "Leaves".
.

Anyway the "learned plural" of octopus ought to be octopodes; it's a Greek word, not a Latin one.

 

[Mk]

what about the fish

More than one fish is fish unless there is more than one species or kind of fish—then it is fishes.

Virus? (viri or viruses(standard))

Depends on what context. Hackers and virologists spell it different... on or the other tends to like viri or virii better. Any of the following really will due, based on its etymology, and rules/orthodoxy of Latin/English:

Viri, Nirii, Virius, virora, vira, virua, vire, viruses

 

[Rach3]

Depends on what context. Hackers and virologists spell it different... on or the other tends to like viri or virii better. Any of the following really will due, based on its etymology, and rules/orthodoxy of Latin/English:

Viri, Nirii, Virius, virora, vira, virua, vire, viruses

Politicians.

 

[Chi Meson]

More than one fish is fish unless there is more than one species or kind of fish—then it is fishes.

Kinda like "monies" right? Its a plural plural.

From "Seinfeld": "In fact she had many many monies."

 

[selfAdjoint]

More than one fish is fish unless there is more than one species or kind of fish—then it is fishes.

Or Biblical, "Loaves and fishes".

Or comically poetic:

"...How cheerfully he seems to grin...
And welcomes little fishes in..."

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

I think what important is that people understand what you are trying to say, if it turns into some sort of etymology dicussion it usual isn't anything to do with your prose or a thread, but more to do with lack of reason to argue with it. At least in a forum and in real life also.

Pedantic points are fine, but most people ignore them as they are of little worth if the discussed point were fully understood by all. When someone who is foreign to the language gets pulled up it's educational, when a versed speaker get's pulled up you can usually tell that they don't want to respond to your points because they are troubling, so they resort to picking apart grammar and spelling, beware all pedants, they are seldom worth your consideration, and in fact it's against many of the more educated forums rules; Speak your mind, if someone doesn't follow your exact meaning they will usually have the decency to ask you to clarify, if not ignore them.

You should spoke what you believe and hope people would consider it in the interest of continuation for discussioned purposes.

Plenty of grammatical error but was the prose understandable and was the conjugation acceptable?

 

[Gelsamel Epsilon]

(Sorry for this in advance)

So letz continu ta mutlate tha english language

don't matter slong as yu understoods

 

[Moonbear]

(Sorry for this in advance)

So letz continu ta mutlate tha english language

don't matter slong as yu understoods

The problem is, it can quickly deteriorate to the point where you're not understood. You should have seen the thread where we were all trying to translate the text messages someone (Chroot maybe??) was getting mistakenly sent to his phone! We started to suspect it might be a foreign language.

 

[Pythagorean]

Spouse, spice.

i like this plural

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

If you're are Scotish the plural of moose is mouses or mice.

As in their's a moose loose around this hoose.

 

[star.torturer]

yep. got ths song?

 

[Anttech]

I'm rather sure it was originally octopi inheriting the Latin declension, and octopuses was a bastardization. Some people would say adding the "es" makes it a standardization, because it agrees with some other plural forms. I call it bastardization.

Actually it is a hellinicised Latin word. A word that was used in latin from Greek (latinised Greek). So it is really a greek word, putting an 'I' on the end would be a Latin suffix, the Greek plural should be octopodes...

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Octopus