Well, you smart thing. I guess the dictionary gives "octopi" in recognition of the number of us who have done that shoehorning thing over the decades.
So... from now on, to elicit a correction in response to which I can quote you, I should say "octopods?" It's octopus, octopods?
Oh, listen to this: I just looked up octopod in my execrable but handy American Heritage Dictionary, and its definition is given as "Any of various cephalopod mollusks of the order Octopoda, such as an octopus, having eight tentacles. [From New Latin Octopoda, order name, from Greek oktopoda..etc]
Their definition of octopus is: Any of the numerous carnivorous marine mollusks of the genus Octopus...[New Latin Octopus, genus name, from Greek octopous...]
So this does seem to imply that "octopus" and "octopod" come from different New Latin words, which themselves come from different Greek words (octopoda vs. octopous.)
Oh, wait again. I now see that the New Latin Octopoda, order name, is from Greek oktopoda-- the neuter plural of oktopous (octopus).
So where does this leave us, LRP? (I shall do as you dictate. I dare say you will say go with octopuses, though, but how instructive is that?) |
