Re: [Waaaaaay OT] Grammer

[Deryk Barker <dbarker@turing.cs.camosun.bc.ca>]

Thus spake Karsten M. Self (kmself@ix.netcom.com):

> on Wed, Oct 22, 2003 at 06:59:35PM +0100, Pigeon (jah.pigeon@ukonline.co.uk) wrote:
> > On Wed, Oct 22, 2003 at 07:15:30AM -0700, Tom wrote:
> > > 
> > > My personal pet peeve is:
> > > http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=octopi
> > > oc?to?pus    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (kt-ps)
> > > n. pl. oc?to?pus?es or oc?to?pi (-p)
> > > 
> > > Octopus is greek.  The correct plural is octopuses damn it!
> > 
> > ... so shouldn't it be 'octopedes' IIRC? Haralambos?
> 
> hexadecipus

The "Greek" plural would be octopodes.

But the word is English, so the correct, non=-pedantic plural is
octopuses. (See Eric Partridge's Usage and Abusage for more on
pretentious plurals)
-- 
|Deryk Barker, Computer Science Dept. | Music does not have to be understood|
|Camosun College, Victoria, BC, Canada| It has to be listened to.           |
|email: dbarker@camosun.bc.ca         |                                     |
|phone: +1 250 370 4452               |         Hermann Scherchen.          |