The plural of "octopus"

[xiphias]

An anonymous commenter in my LJ claimed that, when the word "octopus" was taken into Latin from Greek, it was made into a regular third declension word.

That would make its plural "octopera".

Now, I don't know if that'd true or not -- I'm sticking with the Greek-based "octopodes" and the English-based "octopuses". I thought that "octopus" remained irregular in Latin and kept its Greek form, but I don't know that for sure. I'm pretty certain that "octopi" is a mistake, though.

But my point is that, if "octopera" is the actual plural, then somebody HAS to write "Octopera: A Rock Opera". It's a moral imperative.

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Then they have to write the sequel. So there's a pair of Octopera opera.

[yehoshua.livejournal.com]

"... and that's when I shot him, Your Honor."

[sethg]

One of my professors at MIT claimed that "octopus" is fifth-declension, so its plural is "octopūs"*, pronounced "octopoose".

*Did you know that in X Windows under Linux, you can type a Unicode character by holding down CTRL-SHIFT and typing the character's hexadecimal code? My life has been transformed by this discovery.

[navrins]

...the interweaving tales of eight people who surive the Apocalypse...

[i-aldarion.livejournal.com]

I've always heard/seen the plural 'octopi', but I might just run in odd circles.

[mattblum.livejournal.com]

As it's now an English word, too, "octopuses" is considered acceptable by most sources I've seen.

[mattblum.livejournal.com]

...which you said. D'oh! Sorry.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Heh. I work with marine biologists, who tend to be picky about nomenclature, and while they acknowledge that linguists might prefer "octopodes," they themselves use either "octopuses" or "octopi," as do most dictionaries.

"Octopera?" No way. Your anonymous commentor is playing linguistic games.

[felis-sidus.livejournal.com]

If you keep trying to dispose of octopi, our tentacled overlords may become displeased. Wikipedia also dislikes octopi, but is forced to admit that others disagree. While "octopuses" is the preferred plural, "octopi" is an accepted secondary plural form according to Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, Dictionary.com, Newbury House Dictionary of American English, Wordsmyth.net, Century Dictionary, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Merriam-Webster OnLine, The Collaborative International Dictionary of English, macquarie.net (a Macquarie Dictionary resource), Cambridge Dictionaries OnLine, and the Oxford English Dictionary. (Whew!) That hardly qualifies "octopi" as being wrong. Less than ideal, yes, but not wrong.

On the other sucker, I, for one, would welcome an octoperatic opera, especially if we get to eat octo-pie while attending.

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

It's octopodes, octopodes, octopodes, I tell you! (Don't get me started on Greek...)

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

When I say "octopus" I'm speaking English, and say "octopuses." (Oddly, I use traditional plurals for most of that sort of word, though, like "fungi" and "alumni" and "media" but not "gymnasia."

[kelfstein.livejournal.com]

I shall pray to the the Overlord to enlighten this poor servant of the abyss on this must delicate of subjects.

[readsalot.livejournal.com]

I'm told that yes, "octopus" is a third declension word, but that does not make its plural "octopera". The proper plural is, in fact, "octopodes". The person claiming "octopera" is probably confused because "opus", another third declension word, has as its plural "opera", but that's because the real root of "opus" is "oper". Also, since "octopus" is masculine it can't possibly have a nominative plural ending in "a".

[sproutntad.livejournal.com]

In all of my marine bio classes we have used octopi as the plural. Octopuses just sounds too close to "octopussy and if you said that in a class of first year Uni students they would bust out laughing. Also most of the TA's would probably pronounce it that way. But that's just my two cents...

[sproutntad.livejournal.com]

Interesting note... when I spell checked the entry, lj said that "octopi" was an incorrect spelling of the word...

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

Isn't "Octopussy" an old James Bond movie with Sean Connery?

Octopera

[(Anonymous)]

I did! It's not exactly a rock opera. I made up the name using oct for eight and opera for - well - opera. It's a sequence of eight mini-operas and micro-musicals. See my website www.DavidHaines.co.uk for more details.

Re: Octopera

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I just looked at your web page -- the stuff you write sounds so cool!

Now I'm sorry I missed you when you were in Massachusetts.