this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2024
199 points (87.8% liked)
Memes
45527 readers
1056 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I am the guy in the middle, except I'm telling people it's octopuses.
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.
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.