I learned recently that the pluralization of "octopus" is a linguistics rabbit hole. While most people would reach for "octopuses" or "octopi", the strictly correctest pluralization would be "octopodes" (last syllable rhyming with "these"), since the word is from ancient greek. [1]
I first heard this on a linguistics podcast called "Talk the Talk"[2] (now superseded by "Because Language"[3]). The hosts go on to clarify that language evolves over time and is most importantly defined by what people actually use, so there's nothing wrong with modern English deviating from the ancient greek pluralization.
I first heard this on a linguistics podcast called "Talk the Talk"[2] (now superseded by "Because Language"[3]). The hosts go on to clarify that language evolves over time and is most importantly defined by what people actually use, so there's nothing wrong with modern English deviating from the ancient greek pluralization.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus#Etymology_and_pluralis... [2] https://talkthetalkpodcast.com/ [3] https://becauselanguage.com/