this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2024
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Science Memes

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Lifestyles of the Bronze Age Famous (mander.xyz)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] tamal3 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Words in English that end in "-us" and pluralize to "-i" are from Latin, such as cactus/cacti or focus/foci. However, "octopus" is from Greek, and its correct pluralization from Greek would be "octopodes." In English, we have also adopted "octopuses," which fits our standard pluralization rules.

So, "octopi" is actually a language mix up, though one that's so common that it seems to be accepted in English.