# "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:** 4
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/61 "2006-10-09T16:13:51Z")
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.] Yes, and spiders have eight legs. What’s your point? [/QUOTE] That the proper plural of spider is octopi? ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/62 "2006-10-09T16:19:59Z")
I always thought the plural should be “penois.” ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/63 "2006-10-09T17:24:31Z")
[QUOTE=Nava] Threads like this one make me want to stick with Pulpo a la Gallega… [/QUOTE] That’s from one of _las demas lenguas españolas_, right? 😃 ---
**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 9, 2006, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/64 "2006-10-09T17:30:27Z")
[QUOTE=42fish] That the proper plural of spider is octopi? [/QUOTE] According to an ex-girlfriend, the plural of spider is “Eeeeeeeek!!!” ---
**Author:** ![rayh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@rayh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rayh)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/65 "2006-10-09T17:36:04Z")
[QUOTE=Monty] My point is that the word itself came into English from Latin, one of the plural endings came into English from Latin, and that although in Latin that’s the wrong plural ending, it’s one of the accepted–and thus correct–pluralizations in English for the word. [/QUOTE] I think the point is now is that it is an English word, no matter what its roots. So its plural is whatever the English people decide it is. It Greek the plural ending might be -ode, the Latin plural may be -i, it doesn’t matter. It is what the English plural is now. Oh and what’s the plural of anus? ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/66 "2006-10-09T17:37:57Z")
[QUOTE=Polycarp] That’s from one of _las demas lenguas españolas_, right? 😃 [/QUOTE] Actually, the name she gave was the Spanish word. I don’t remember what the Galego word for “pulpo” is or I’d tell you the native name for it. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/67 "2006-10-09T17:44:32Z")
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.] Of course it was. I was yanking your chain right back atcha. You big goof, you. [/QUOTE] One goof. A group of geef. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/68 "2006-10-09T17:48:25Z")
“Bring me an octopus, an while you’re at it, bring me another.” The classic response. Although I don’t think it works as wel with “penis.” I made the mistake of using “octopi” in the presence of a professor I was getting information from for my book. He promptly told me it wasn’t a word, and reached over and pulled down the appropriate volume of the OED (Of _course_ he had a copy of the complete OED. Literally at hand), and showed me the correct form _octopodes_. I put it into my book as a footnote. The form _penes_ shows up in John Steinbeck’s **The Grapes of Wrath**. I vividly remembver it from when I read it in high school, and I’ve encountered the form many times since. I can’t honestly say I’ve come across “octopi” ot “octopodes” in print until I saw that entry in the Oxford English Dictionary. By the way, does anyone recall that 1960s/1970s commercial (I forget what it was for) that had an animated stewardess complainging that she was one of those “too-budy worn out _Stewardi_”. It was uncharacteristically witty, and I always wondered how many people goty it. (It assumes that “Stewardess” is like “stewardus”, which, if Latin and first declension would have the plural “stewardi”. Which seems even more inappropriate since it has the form of a masculine word, which "stewardess/stewardus? ought not to be.) ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/69 "2006-10-09T18:15:43Z")
[QUOTE=Excalibre] Actually, the name she gave was the Spanish word. I don’t remember what the Galego word for “pulpo” is or I’d tell you the native name for it. [/QUOTE] It was an attempt at a small joke, no more. What truly surprises me is the coexistence of phalli and cephalopoda in this thread with absolutely no wisecracks about Japanese tentacle-porn. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/70 "2006-10-09T18:25:14Z")
[QUOTE=Polycarp] It was an attempt at a small joke, no more. What truly surprises me is the coexistence of phalli and cephalopoda in this thread with absolutely no wisecracks about Japanese tentacle-porn. [/QUOTE] Japanese TENTACLE-porn? Do tell! I’m woefully out of touch with pornography, but this sounds velly intellesting! ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/71 "2006-10-09T18:51:38Z")
[QUOTE=Kalhoun] Japanese TENTACLE-porn? Do tell! I’m woefully out of touch with pornography, but this sounds velly intellesting! [/QUOTE] Googling “hentai” would probably give you a start there. If you dare. … I think that’s the plural; that would be Japanese-tentacle_ **s** _\* porn. If there’s only one tentacle, it would obviously be “henta”. - that looks wrong. it’s probably _tentacli_, using analogy to _octopi_. ---
**Author:** ![fisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@fisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fisha)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/72 "2006-10-09T20:01:13Z")
[QUOTE=Kalhoun] I always thought the plural should be “penois.” [/QUOTE] Spoken with a pronounced drawn out French accent. _Pen-wa_ ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/73 "2006-10-09T20:17:02Z")
Just to note, the modern Romance words for octopus (French: _poulpe_, _pieuvre_; Spanish: _pulpo_, etc.) are ultimately borrowed from Greek poly-pous, not okto-pous. The Romans couldn’t even be bothered to COUNT the little legs. Why should we use one of their plurals? (Which, btw, is _polypi_ in Latin.) Side note to a comment waaaaay upthread: bus, as in _omnibus_ ([the thing] “for everybody”) is already plural, in that it’s the dative plural ending -ibus, so “bi” (or even “omnibi”) is a much, much worse abomination even than octopi with virii on their penii. The Latin plural of ’bus (res omnibus) is ’bus (res omnibus). ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/74 "2006-10-09T20:36:40Z")
[QUOTE=Dr. Drake] Just to note, the modern Romance words for octopus (French: _poulpe_, _pieuvre_; Spanish: _pulpo_, etc.) are ultimately borrowed from Greek poly-pous, not okto-pous. The Romans couldn’t even be bothered to COUNT the little legs. Why should we use one of their plurals? (Which, btw, is _polypi_ in Latin.) Side note to a comment waaaaay upthread: bus, as in _omnibus_ ([the thing] “for everybody”) is already plural, in that it’s the dative plural ending -ibus, so “bi” (or even “omnibi”) is a much, much worse abomination even than octopi with virii on their penii. The Latin plural of ’bus (res omnibus) is ’bus (res omnibus). [/QUOTE] ::: points **Dr. Drake** even farfther upthread to my pun about “interurban bi” 😛 :::: And the term “polyp” for multitentaculophorous invertebrates (whether cephalopods or coelenterates) and by extension to abnormal body growths which visually resemble them is derived from _polypous_. Along with, I believe, polypody ferns. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/75 "2006-10-09T20:55:54Z")
[QUOTE=Dr. Drake] Side note to a comment waaaaay upthread: bus, as in _omnibus_ ([the thing] “for everybody”) is already plural, in that it’s the dative plural ending -ibus, so “bi” (or even “omnibi”) is a much, much worse abomination even than octopi with virii on their penii. The Latin plural of ’bus (res omnibus) is ’bus (res omnibus). [/QUOTE] But if you say that, you kind of run into the issue of whether you can really pluralize something according to the rules of its native tongue if it’s already plural accroding to those same rules. What’s at stake in this particular example is that the plural of ‘res omnibus’ would simply be pluralizing ‘res’, which has the same ending in this case singular or plural; even if the ending were different, the abbreviation doesn’t include any of the first word. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/76 "2006-10-09T20:58:14Z")
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.] According to an ex-girlfriend, the plural of spider is “Eeeeeeeek!!!” [/QUOTE] Yes, and you broke up with her on technical grounds when she eeked at a pair of Daddy Long-Legs. ---
**Author:** ![jakeline](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a8b319/32.png) [@jakeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakeline)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/77 "2006-10-09T21:08:15Z")
[QUOTE=rayh] Oh and what’s the plural of anus? [/QUOTE] Telemarketers ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/78 "2006-10-09T21:15:43Z")
[QUOTE=Lightray] Googling “hentai” would probably give you a start there. If you dare. … I think that’s the plural; that would be Japanese-tentacle_ **s** _\* porn. If there’s only one tentacle, it would obviously be “henta”. [/QUOTE] Well, it might be if Japanese formed plurals in a similar way to Greek and Latin 🙂 But it’s hentai no matter how many tentacles the young lady is trying to cope with. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/79 "2006-10-09T23:06:44Z")
[QUOTE=rayh] I think the point is now is that it is an English word, no matter what its roots. So its plural is whatever the English people decide it is. It Greek the plural ending might be -ode, the Latin plural may be -i, it doesn’t matter. It is what the English plural is now. [/quote] That’s what I said. > [@](#): > > Oh and what’s the plural of anus? What’s the relevance of this comment? ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717/80 "2006-10-09T23:18:44Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] Well, it might be if Japanese formed plurals in a similar way to Greek and Latin 🙂 [/QUOTE] The Deuce you say! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penii/375717.md?page=5)