<<Anybody ever notice how many people think the plural of
"octopus" is "octopi"? Yaack. "Octopuses" sounds dorky but is
better.>>
But LRR, if you studied Latin in school, "octopi" really does sound better. You would have had it beaten into your skull by the fourth week of your Latin studies that the plural ending of the masculine "-us" nouns was "-i," and by the fourth year, "octopuses" would sound truly screwy to you.
My dictionary does say, "pl. -puses or -pi," I don't know whether that means it's a toss up, or -puses is preferred.
Some recent TV News word-oddities:
Brian William, MSNBC news, referred to a witness as uttering "mistruths."
On Hardball, CNBC, ex-Congressman Wayne Owens proposed that the "wizened heads" of the Republican party get together to consult on impeachment. I'm sure he meant wise heads, and not shrunken, dried up ones.
Also on Hardball, Ed Rollins described James Carville as "throwing the mantle down" (to Clinton's enemies.) He must have meant gauntlet, and it's a little comical, because "giving up the mantle" means something like relinquishing a protection (I'm not looking it up), and would be the opposite of a provocation, I think.
A caller to the Rush Limbaugh show complained that defenders of President Clinton, "annoy me to no end." |
