# Octopodes and... platypodes?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopodes-and-platypodes/494658
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 28, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopodes-and-platypodes/494658 "2009-04-28T19:12:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2009, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopodes-and-platypodes/494658/21 "2009-04-29T16:58:00Z")
I prefer “platypussies”. 😉
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### Author:  [@palindromemordnilap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palindromemordnilap)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2009, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopodes-and-platypodes/494658/22 "2009-04-29T18:02:25Z")
> [@sqweels](#):
>
> I prefer “platypussies”. 😉
Platypussy would make a great James Bond villain.
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### Author:  [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2009, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopodes-and-platypodes/494658/23 "2009-04-29T18:08:00Z")
> [@palindromemordnilap](#):
>
> Platypussy would make a great James Bond villain.
“Down Under”, of course.
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2009, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopodes-and-platypodes/494658/24 "2009-04-29T19:34:48Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> While “octopodes” is a correct Latin plural…
No it isn’t. It’s a correct Greek plural.
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### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopodes-and-platypodes/494658/25 "2009-04-30T17:47:12Z")
> [@rocking\_chair](#):
>
> has it been decided then?
>
> one goose, two geese.
> one moose, two meese.
> one shoop, two sheep.
>
> we could start a trend.
Now I got _The Shoop Shoop Song_ stuck in my head. Thanks a lot.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopodes-and-platypodes/494658/26 "2009-04-30T18:05:27Z")
> [@psychonaut](#):
>
> No it isn’t. It’s a correct Greek plural.
While it is derived from the Greek, it is also the correct Latin plural.
From the [Staff Report](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2139/what-is-the-plural-of-penis) I linked to above:
> [@](#):
>
> Octopus is another of these third declension nouns in Latin, borrowed from Greek. The Latin plural is octopodes,
If you contend that “octopodes” is incorrect in Latin, what is the correct plural?
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### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2009, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopodes-and-platypodes/494658/27 "2009-04-30T18:22:12Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> While it is derived from the Greek, it is also the correct Latin plural.
>
> From the [Staff Report](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2139/what-is-the-plural-of-penis) I linked to above:
>
> If you contend that “octopodes” is incorrect in Latin, what is the correct plural?
He was, I think, making the point that it is not a Latin but a Greek word. However, that’s ignoring the rule, older than the English language, that says that the proper plural of a Latin word borrowed from Greek is its Greek plural.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopodes-and-platypodes/494658/28 "2009-04-30T18:27:25Z")
> [@Polycarp](#):
>
> He was, I think, making the point that it is not a Latin but a Greek word.
However, what he _said_ was was that it was not a correct Latin plural, which is incorrect.
Live by the nitpick, die by the nitpick. 😉
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopodes-and-platypodes/494658/29 "2009-04-30T19:04:45Z")
And I have it on the very highest authority (the late, great Dr. John Ostrom himself) that the large skeleton in the dinosaur hall of Yale’s Peabody Museum is named “Emily.” He told that to my daughters once when we ran into him at his job. One of nature’s true gentlemen.
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### Author:  [@The\_Seventh\_Deadly\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Seventh_Deadly_Finn)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2009, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopodes-and-platypodes/494658/30 "2009-05-04T09:06:59Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#):
>
> And I have it on the very highest authority (the late, great Dr. John Ostrom himself) that the large skeleton in the dinosaur hall of Yale’s Peabody Museum is named “Emily.” He told that to my daughters once when we ran into him at his job. One of nature’s true gentlemen.
Yes, but now they’ve changed its name to “Judd.”
(This joke is so obscure that it’s basically a riddle, but I have faith in the Dope…)
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### Author:  [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2009, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopodes-and-platypodes/494658/31 "2009-05-05T07:27:50Z")
> [@Giles](#):
>
> IWhat would you use as the plural of the English word “omnibus”?
This might help: [The Motor Bus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Motor_Bus). Or maybe not.
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### Author:  [@lukelightning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lukelightning)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2009, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopodes-and-platypodes/494658/32 "2009-05-08T17:39:42Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Well, _I_ like “platypodes”. It has a nice ring to it, and is grratifyingly weird.
A group of platypus religious leaders with total power would be plenipotent pontifical platypodes.
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### Author:  [@PassMeABeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PassMeABeer)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2009, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopodes-and-platypodes/494658/33 "2009-05-08T19:46:40Z")
And to be of no help at all, from an australian who has seen them in the wild; I’ve never seen more than one at a time together (in central gippsland) and know no one who has, so there is no practical need for a plural form of the word platypus. So I guess this is mostly an exercise in english langauge usage 🙂
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2009, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopodes-and-platypodes/494658/34 "2009-05-09T15:50:06Z")
> [@PassMeABeer](#):
>
> And to be of no help at all, from an australian who has seen them in the wild; I’ve never seen more than one at a time together (in central gippsland) and know no one who has, so there is no practical need for a plural form of the word platypus. So I guess this is mostly an exercise in english langauge usage 🙂
But have two people seen one at the same time in different locations? If not, perhaps there is only one of them in all of nature.
As for moose, up here the plural is “nuisances”.
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### Author:  [@Julie\_in\_Sydney](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Julie_in_Sydney)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2009, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopodes-and-platypodes/494658/35 "2009-05-11T04:21:37Z")
The Taronga Zoo in Sydney uses the same word for the singular and the plural. [http://www.taronga.org.au/taronga-zoo/our-animals/view-by-continent/australia/platypus.aspx](http://www.taronga.org.au/taronga-zoo/our-animals/view-by-continent/australia/platypus.aspx)
Another plural conundrum: why mouse/mice, but not spouse/spice or house/hice?
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2009, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopodes-and-platypodes/494658/36 "2009-05-11T04:45:59Z")
> [@Julie](#):
>
> Another plural conundrum: why mouse/mice, but not spouse/spice or house/hice?
“Mice” and “houses” are left over from Old English _mys_ (an irregular or i-umlaut plural) and _husas_ (a regular plural). Early Old English may have started the i-umlaut thing as a result of merging Celtic and Germanic dialects, but I don’t know exactly why or how.
As [this comment](http://malaysia.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1005123000954) explains, “spouse” entered English not from Old English but from French, so it got a regular plural.
And finally, you can count yourself lucky that English plurals are no more complicated than they are. There used to be another Old English plural form that consisted of adding a final “u” to the singular. E.g., one ship, two shipu. No kidding.
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### Author:  [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2009, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/octopodes-and-platypodes/494658/37 "2009-05-11T04:57:18Z")
> [@Julie\_in\_Sydney](#):
>
> Another plural conundrum: why mouse/mice, but not spouse/spice or house/hice?
Farmer Pluribus thinks those are just dandy: [Foxen in the Henhice](http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go2573/is_4_29/ai_n29150810/)
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