# "Penii" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 8, 2006, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717 "2006-10-08T15:32:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![britboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/59ef9b/32.png) [@britboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/britboy)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/1 "2006-10-08T15:32:53Z")
For fucks sake! It’s Penes or Penises! There’s something that pisses me off to the extreme about the half-educated who try and impose their half-understood or half-remembered classical grammar on common English words. Be educated, or be common. I couldn’t give a fuck - but don’t be half-educated and superior with it. That is all. BritBoy ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/2 "2006-10-08T15:52:48Z")
I can’t agree with you more. It’s like ‘octopi’. For heaven’s sake, just say octopuses! ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/3 "2006-10-08T15:54:49Z")
One hippopotami Cannot get on a bus Because one hippopotami Is two hippopotamus. – Alan Sherman. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/4 "2006-10-08T15:54:58Z")
> [@](#): > > just say octopuses I’d rather say “eight vaginae”. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/5 "2006-10-08T16:00:05Z")
Do people actually use it because they think it’s correct? I’ve always assumed people say it (or write it, as the case may be) because they are trying to be humorous by using a goofy-sounding made-up word. I might get behind a pitting of people who think they are _succeeding_ in being humorous. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/6 "2006-10-08T16:01:59Z")
[QUOTE=Helen’s Eidolon] It’s like ‘octopi’. For heaven’s sake, just say octopuses! [/QUOTE] Yes, but _octopi_ is a proper Latin pluralization. _Penii_ is not. Using the word _octopi_ may be pretentious, but at least it’s correct. ---
**Author:** ![britboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/59ef9b/32.png) [@britboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/britboy)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/7 "2006-10-08T16:05:07Z")
[QUOTE=delphica] Do people actually use it because they think it’s correct? I’ve always assumed people say it (or write it, as the case may be) because they are trying to be humorous by using a goofy-sounding made-up word. I might get behind a pitting of people who think they are _succeeding_ in being humorous. [/QUOTE] I know at least one person who thinks it’s correct. Teacher, never wrong, you know the type. She got very upset when I corrected her! ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/8 "2006-10-08T16:08:03Z")
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.] Yes, but _octopi_ is a proper Latin pluralization. _Penii_ is not. Using the word _octopi_ may be pretentious, but at least it’s correct. [/QUOTE] Nuh-uh. Octopus is a Greek word, not a Latin one. The correct classical plural would be octopodes. ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/9 "2006-10-08T16:12:12Z")
In a related topic, I hate people who are all up in arms and picky and pretentious about proper pluralization of obscure words (like, say, zoonosis/zoonoses) and then go around saying ‘a bacteria’. I have to admit, I think that, with very few exceptions, once a word has been borrowed into English, we should pluralize it like an English word and forget the older pluralization. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/10 "2006-10-08T16:12:18Z")
Huh, how do you like them apples? The form is pervasive even within the marine biology community; if they don’t know the right word, I don’t know what to think anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/11 "2006-10-08T16:13:26Z")
Grilled baby octopuses in a Greek pastry shell would make a lovely octopie. Are baby octopuses octopussies? ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/12 "2006-10-08T16:14:11Z")
[QUOTE=Helen’s Eidolon] Nuh-uh. Octopus is a Greek word, not a Latin one. The correct classical plural would be octopodes. [/QUOTE] Though were it Latin, the correct pluralization would be Octavius. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/13 "2006-10-08T16:14:30Z")
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.] Huh, how do you like them apples? The form is pervasive even within the marine biology community; if they don’t know the right word, I don’t know what to think anymore. [/QUOTE] Think that marine biologists aren’t classical scholars. Of course, if they’re using it, it’s kinda hard to call it incorrect… ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/14 "2006-10-08T16:23:03Z")
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.] Yes, but _octopi_ is a proper Latin pluralization. _Penii_ is not. Using the word _octopi_ may be pretentious, but at least it’s correct. [/QUOTE] Of what? “Octopus” is not a second-declension Latin word. “Octopi” is not the proper plural of _anything_ other than by having been a solecism granted popular approval by 100 years of usage. Or perhaps it’s appropriate to say that Greyhound and Trailways run interurban bi to nearly every major North American city. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/15 "2006-10-08T16:27:31Z")
[QUOTE=Helen’s Eidolon] Nuh-uh. Octopus is a Greek word, not a Latin one. The correct classical plural would be octopodes. [/QUOTE] If they were an Irish band, the would be the Octopogues. \*Current members Shane MacGowan – 1982-1991, 2001- Spider Stacy – 1982-1996, 2001- Philip Chevron – 1985-1994, 2001- James Fearnley – 1982-1993, 2001- Terry Woods – 1986-1994, 2001- Jem Finer – 1982 - 1996, 2001- Andrew Ranken – 1982-1996, 2001- Daryl Hunt – 1986-1996, 2001-\* ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/16 "2006-10-08T16:28:30Z")
You never know what kind of folks you’ll meet on Greyhound. Some of them may well be interurban bi. Back to **ii** …anybody notice the prevalence online of the word _virii_ for plural of _virus_? When I took Latin, -ii was the nom.pl. ending for 2d decl. words ending in -ius. Example: “I have a virius on my penius.” ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/17 "2006-10-08T16:29:00Z")
[QUOTE=Patty O’Furniture] I’d rather say “eight vaginae”. [/QUOTE] :eek: :eek: Good Lord, it would be like playing Russian Roulette! ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/18 "2006-10-08T17:17:45Z")
[QUOTE=britboy] For fucks sake! It’s Penes or Penises! [/QUOTE] Well, yeah, that’s one thing to do with them. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/19 "2006-10-08T17:28:45Z")
[QUOTE=Helen’s Eidolon] Nuh-uh. Octopus is a Greek word, not a Latin one. [/QUOTE] When I go to Greece and start speaking Greek, I’ll be more than happy to use Greek pluralization. When I’m in the US, and speaking English, octopus is an English word, and gets whatever pluralization English speakers have decided is most appropriate for it. ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/20 "2006-10-08T17:31:57Z")
[QUOTE=Cheesesteak] When I go to Greece and start speaking Greek, I’ll be more than happy to use Greek pluralization. When I’m in the US, and speaking English, octopus is an English word, and gets whatever pluralization English speakers have decided is most appropriate for it. [/QUOTE] Exactly. And the ENGLISH pluralization is ‘octopuses’. Not the fake, incorrect, pretentious ‘octopi’. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717.md?page=2)