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

[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.