Octopi, octopuses, and octopods are all valid pluralizations of octopus in American English.
Conversely, cacti is the only valid pluralization of cactus.
Don’t worry, language itself pissed us off long before you did.
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monarch@lemm.ee 1 month agoI use all forms of octopi interchangeably just to piss off linguists.
aeronmelon@lemmy.world 1 month ago
murtaza64@programming.dev 1 month ago
Linguists are probably the least likely people to get upset at someone using the “wrong” word. they might pull out their notebook and start asking you questions though
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 month ago
octopiussi
stray@pawb.social 1 month ago
I feel like any linguist upset by non-prescriptive language needs to maybe reconsider their life choices. Imagine telling someone they’re painting incorrectly or being mad at the discovery of a new species.
monarch@lemm.ee 1 month ago
I meant to put the linguist at the end in quotes my bad on that. I was trying to refer to the self styled reddit “linguists” that you would see trying to correct people for using the wrong form of then/than where it was really not appropriate.