Zoe from Kingston, New York, wonders: what is the plural of octopus? More than one of these animals can be referred to as octopi or octopuses. Octopus comes from Greek words that mean “eight feet,” so strictly speaking, if you wanted to use the equivalent of a Greek ending on this word, you’d use the rare English word octopodes (which, correctly pronounced, rhymes with “mock plop of cheese,” not “wok foe toads”), but try it, and you’ll only sound pretentious. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Once and For All, What’s the Plural of “Octopus”?”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, my name is Zoe. I’m near Kingston, New York, in Hudson Valley.
Hi, Zoe. Welcome to the show.
This arose after I received a photograph of a blueberry pie with this beautifully sculpted crust in the shape of an octopus on top of the blueberries.
And it had this long leg circling around the pie top and this amazing head and these really intense eyes.
It was really well made out of the crust.
And the caption read, the plural of octopus is octopi.
It’s spelled P-I-E.
Points for the pun.
Yeah.
And I thought that was good punny.
And I always thought the plural of octopus was octopi.
So I thought this was nice and I reposted it.
This was on Facebook.
And I very quickly got a lot of replies that they enjoyed it.
But pretty soon I got a reply that started a series of things about the plural.
And a friend said, actually, the plural of octopus is octopus, same spelling.
And I never heard that.
And then within an hour, another person wrote and said the plural is octopuses or octopodes.
It just seemed too complicated.
And I thought of way with words and thought we better ask you.
Well, yeah, Zoe, I think the answer here is to say what comes naturally.
I mean, I was sitting here thinking, oh, my gosh, she’s talking about this pie that has blueberries in it.
And it’s got an octopus on the top.
And my immediate thought was, I hope no octopuses were harmed in the making of that pie.
Absolutely not.
I think just good crust work, crust crafting.
Because you can say it either way.
You can say octopi or you can say octopuses, which was my natural response.
And you’re right that people have been puzzling over this for a long time.
There’s a wonderful article in a newspaper from the 1870s in England where they’re talking about octopus philology.
And they’re talking about how you should make the plural of this word.
And I love how they put it.
They say, some daring spirits with little Latin and less Greek rushed upon octopi.
As for octopuses, a man would as soon think of swallowing one of the animals thus described as pronounced such a word at a respectable tea table.
Right.
That’s a little awkward.
All right.
So there’s strata here, Martha, right?
The strictest copy editors might prefer octopuses.
Yes.
Some people say because the word is of Greek origin and not Latin origin, the octopi plural is not etymologically sound.
But because English didn’t get the word directly from Greek but got it from New Latin, that’s not correct.
And anyway, the Greek plural would be octopodes, and nobody uses that at all.
Nobody says octopodes.
They say octopodes, which is wrong.
Yeah, and we should point out that the word octopus itself comes from Greek words that mean eight feet literally, like octagon.
So in the end, my opinion is people are whimsical.
We love plonking Latin endings on Greek roots because it annoys stuffed shirts.
And so why not say octopi and have a little laugh?
Good.
Okay.
Well, thank you.
That’s great.
Thank you, Zoe.
Appreciate it.
Thank you so much, Zoe.
Take care.
Thank you.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
Well, unfurl one of your eight tentacles, press those buttons, give us a call at 877-929-9673.
