Quote:
Originally Posted by Darqref
Baen Books is an American publisher, and they specifically reference the Chicago Manual of Style, which itself references Websters when judging plurals. Websters says octopi, therefore it would have been changed (or at least questioned) by the editors if spelled otherwise.
And if Chicago specifies octopi, then its likely that academics would also use it, since many other American technical pubs use that style manual.
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Are you saying that Websters actually disapproves of "octopuses"? That's what I find odd about all this; I don't expect people to know the rules for forming Greek plurals, since Greek is no longer widely taught in schools; what I really don't get is this need to form "fake" Latin plurals. Do people think that it makes them sound erudite? Why not just put an "s" (or in this case an "es") on the end of the word, as you would with any other English word?