Octopuses/Octopi/Octopodes

So I’m getting pretty sick of people “correcting my ignorance” when I say “octopuses” so I have decided to correct YOUR ignorance.

Octopus was first noted in the English language in the 17th century.

The English originally gave it a typical British plural, which is “octopuses”.

They then decided to give it a latin plural because the Brits were feeling particularly pretentious and it became “Octopi”, however, “octopuses” was still perfectly acceptable.

It was then noted that Octopus was not a Latin word, but a Greek word and the plural was changed to a greek plural, hence “Octopodes”.

So …”Octopuses”, “Octopi” and “Octopodes” are ALL perfectly acceptable.

Don’t ever try and make me look stupid. You’ll regret it :)