Octopus plural

[jack]

I thought this was settled in my mind but now I looked up Octopus plural on the internet again and this time it says Linnaeus made it up we can use whatever plural we like and "octopi" has been common since the beginning even if it wasn't grammatically faithful at the time...?

Maybe we should ban saying any of "octopuses" "octopi" and "octopodes" are any more correct than each other and let people use whichever they like??

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Pretty sure there's only one, actually. We're talking about the same Leviathan, right? Giant monstrous sea-serpent, famously difficult to draw out with a hook?

Yep, if it's that one, then there's only the one of it. That was the whole point of why Hobbes chose the name to indicate the need for a single sovereign authority, as of course everyone knows.

[jack]

Actually, I don't know anything about it at all, other than it was mentioned in the bible, and by Hobbes...? Can you tell me?