Korean Job Discussion Forums

cubanlord · Joined: 08 Jul 2005 Location: In Japan!

Man, have I read more than I wanted to read about whether or not Octopus should be -i or -es. Wow. So, which do you prefer? For the sake of my students, I am going with -es, even though I tend to use -i a lot more.

crossmr · Joined: 22 Nov 2008 Location: Hwayangdong, Seoul

Leslie Cheswyck · Joined: 31 May 2003 Location: University of Western Chile

I want to say octovagina but that's probably not it.

ChopChaeJoe · Joined: 05 Mar 2006 Location: Seoul

Octopuses is correct, though it sounds silly.

Arthur Dent · Joined: 28 Mar 2007 Location: Kochu whirld

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

I use octopi. 'es' is more fun though.

Amazing creatures. I used to dive for them. Had to stop, just too amazing an animal to fish. Beautiful to see though. Biggest I ever caught was about 20 + kilos. I saw a bigger one at about 30 metres. Wasn't going to mess with it. The beak is as hard as a birds beak.

andrewchon · Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 8:30 pm Post subject:

I thought it was octopussy...

ReeseDog · Joined: 05 Apr 2008 Location: Classified

The word being of Greek rather than Latin origin, either octopus or octopuses is a correct plural. As has been pointed out upthread, though, through ignorance and popular use octopi is becoming acceptable as well.

toadhjo · Joined: 07 Apr 2009

yingwenlaoshi · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Location: ... location, location!

I want to be under the sea.

Straphanger · Joined: 09 Oct 2008 Location: Chilgok, Korea

chris_J2 · Joined: 17 Apr 2006 Location: From Brisbane, Au.

What about platypus?

'Platypi' sounds better than platypuses!

From Wiki:

Straphanger · Joined: 09 Oct 2008 Location: Chilgok, Korea

iammac2002 · Joined: 12 Jun 2009 Location: 'n Beter plek.

Thiuda · Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 6:11 pm Post subject:

"One hippopotami / Cannot get on a bus. Because one hippopotami / Is two hippopotamus." - Alan Sherman

Personally, when it comes to questions of usage, I usually go with the flow, i.e. consult a corpus. A quick check on Google lists approx. 544.000 results for Octopi, 366.000 for Octopuses, but only 21.500 for Octopodes. So, while Octopi may not be strictly speaking correct, it seems to be the most popular form.

There is a very good passage in Steven Pinker's Words and Rules which deals with Latin and Greek derived plurals. He states, "These nouns come from science and academia, and the plurals were borrowed directly from Latin or Greek together with the singulars. They must be irregular forms that are memorized as a list, not the products of a rule attaching -i or -ae, because most nouns shun these plurals except in the speech of people with an attitude.

Latin- and Greek-inspired plurals in a sense are still not part of the English language. They are not acquired as part of the mother tongue in childhood, and are uncommon in everyday speech with nonacademic adults. Instead they are learned in school together with the Pythagorean theorem and the dates of the Peloponnesian War. Since they follow no living rule, and people couldn't have memorized them unless they went to the right schools and read the right books, they are shibboleths of membership in the educated elite and gotcha! material for pedants and know-it-alls" (Pinker, 1999: pp. 54-55).

He goes on and says, "In any case, whenever pedants correct, ordinary speakers hypercorrect, so the attempt to foist "proper" Greek and Latin plurals has bred pseudo-erudite horrors such as axia (more than one axiom), peni, rhinoceri, and [octopi]. It should be "[] octopuses." The -us in Octopus is not the Latin noun ending that switches to -i in the plural, but the Greek pous (foot). The etymologically defensible octopodes is not an improvement" (ibid.).

The book also discusses irregular verbs and the rules that govern their creation and usage. I recommend it for a great read.

Pinker, S. 1999. Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language. Perennial, HarperCollins, NY.