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Today's Maven's word of the day is "ruckus" and it discusses how to pluralize said word (whether it's ruckuses or rucki). They cite octopus as a word that, like ruckus, ends in -us but does not take the -i ending in the plural.
AHD gives this etymology: New Latin Octps, genus name, from Greek oktpous, eight-footed and offers the plural as octopuses or octopi.
Perhaps it's not -i'd because it's from the Greek, and is New Latin (I assume this means Latin words coined in modern times by taxonomists and others scientific types - is this correct?).
Prior to reading this, I'd have been tempted to correct anyone saying octopuses. Who of y'all says which?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Prior to reading this, I'd have been tempted to correct anyone saying octopuses. Who of y'all says which?
This matter was the topic of an email I sent to Anu. In an AWAD email it gave octopi as a possible plural, but did not list octopodes One of my dictionaries lists octopi as "wrong", not as an acceptable option. I asked Anu why his bulletin did not list octopodes, but the query was deemed unworthy of a response. While I have more less settled on octopodes, your post got me wondering what a group of octopodes is called. Any ideas, anyone?
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There's something I remember being attributed to Dr Johnson, but I can't confirm that it is. Treat it as a joke or an urban legend until someone can find it in Boswell or find the correct source. Anyway, someone -- I always imagine Edna Everage glasses and a strong Texan accent (sorry) -- says, "Oh, Dr Johnson, tell me, is the plural of octopus, octopi or octopodes?"
To which he replies, "Madam, that shows an ignorance of three languages."
First point. Latin does not form the plural of -us by changing it to -i.
This is true only for second-declension nouns, which are the majority of those ending in -us, but there are plenty in the third declension (corpus ~ corpora, Venus ~ Venera, opus ~ opera), and plenty in the fourth declension (status ~ statûs, hiatus ~ hiatûs). In Latin, the second declension -us ~ -i was never generalized into the other declensions. It was and remains wrong to form *corpi or *stati, Classical Latin, Mediaeval Latin, or New Latin.
The Greek word pous 'foot' had plural podes. The Greek oktopous was taken into Latin as octopûs (not octopus) and would have been a third-declension noun with plural octopodês.
Now in post-Classical Latin, the distinction between long and short vowels was lost. Octopûs would have changed to octopus. At this point it would have looked like a second-declension noun -- in the nominative singular anyway. They might have lost the declension octopodem, octopodis etc. and created a new one octopum, octopi etc. This actually happened with the related word polypûs, which has given modern 'polyp', a sure sign that it had strayed into the second declension at some point.
To sum up: 'octopodes' is Greek, 'octopi' isn't Latin (or is bad post-Classical Latin, and scientific New Latin always strives to use good Latin)... and 'octopuses' is English. It's an ordinary English word, not technical, so there's no reason not to use the English plural.
As for a collective of octopuses: an army? a handful? a clutch?
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I don't think the ignorance of three languages was Dr. Johnson. I think it was an eminent classicist visiting Australia in the 1920s but the name escapes me at present.
Bingley
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Octopuses is the correct English plural form, but you will still hear octopi, 'irregardless' of this fact.
>As for a collective of octopuses: an army? a handful? a clutch?
How about a tentacle of octopuses.
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Rouspeteur suggests How about a tentacle of octopuses.A pod of octopodes? 
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<<a pod of octopodes?>> an octopod?
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For what it's worth, i'll share this:
our beach is a small cove, with both ends formed by rocky outcroppings which extend 60 yards or so into the ocean, forming incredible caves below the surface, which is maybe 30 or 40 feet deep at the end of the rocks. as you might imagine, this makes for absolutely *stellar* year-round snorkelling and diving (though the water gets too cold by mid-December for most of us, and doesn't warm up again til April or May. today it's only 58 - brrr~rrrr), as the sea-life is both varied and plentiful. you're guaranteed to see several bright-orange Garabaldi, which is a protected fish here in California, as you swim through schools of thousands of tiny fish which somehow you can never seem to touch, though at times it's as if you're parting a solid wall of them. there are often leopard sharks, which are stunning in their beauty and gentle unless cornered, as well as sandsharks, rays, halibut and other fish of every shape and size, so spearfishing is immensely popular among the residents. in addition to magnificent tidepools which boast crabs, anemones and urchins (which are edible but not particularly appetizing), the rocks near the surface provide homes to starfish, sea cucumbers (grossout) and (i'm getting slowly to my point here....) if you look carefully you're sure to find an octopus or two. these are small creatures (fist-sized discounting their tentacles), not the huge ones you see at disneyland's submarine ride.
okay, so here's my point, if anyone's bothered to read this far: since it's obligatory to report on what you saw as you climb back out onto the beach, i've seen folks (myself included) tackle the octopus/octopi/octipode conundrum quite often, and almost without exception we simply treat it as a collective noun; ie "I saw three leopard sharks, a halibut, and a couple of octopus". i guess it's probably poor grammar, but it would sound extremely stilted and pretentious if someone were to utter either "octopi" or "octopode" in anything other than an attempt at humor.
~b
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I have another plural that I have never come to grips with: deer. Any thoughts on the plural? I saw a deer on the road today. I saw two deer on the road today or I saw two deers on the road?
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Doesn`t "deer" fall into the same category as "hair" where both are applicable depending upon the sentence and context. We had a thread about this several months ago but I can`t find it (remnants of a misspent youth I guess).
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