From: Wesley Schwein (schwein@pegasus.montclair.edu)
Date: Sat Nov 22 1997 - 18:27:57 MST
On Sat, 22 Nov 1997, Warrl kyree Tale'sedrin wrote:
> > I've found a few octopodes (allegedly, the correct plural of "octopus")
> > pages that might get all of us up to speed on this issue. These are:
>
> The following is assuming that current scientific
> usage is consistent with Latin, rather than merely based on it...
> which is quite an assumption...
>
> The plural of "octopus" is "octopi".
Pedant-time:
Octopus is Greek, oktopoys. The "oy" (omicron ypsilon) is pronounced
"oo" as in "boot", and Latin did not distinguish orthographically between
a long and a short u.
poys, "foot"
singular plural
nominative poys podes
genitive podos podon
dative podi podois
accusitive poda podoys
There are a lot of words where the NOM.SG ending is different from the
real root word.
Anyway, contemporary usage of Graeco-Latin words doesn't have much to do
with the real languages. It always annoys me, fer ex, when someone says
"boni" instead of "bonuses"; it's unnecessary.
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Wesley Schwein Art is not a mirror; art is a hammer.
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