Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
That's the problem: the pseudo-intellectuals assume it's a Latin word and try to sound clever by saying "octopi". Unfortunately for them, it's not Latin but Greek 
I was interested to learn in a previous thread on this topic that American dictionaries allow "octopi" as a legitimate plural, whether, for example, my Chambers (British) English dictionary says:
pl ocˈtopuses, octōˈpodēs (or /-topˈ/); ocˈtopī is wrong. |
It may have been a Greek word once, but once absorbed into the unruly collective of "English" it is open to all forms bastardization.