Curiosity.
Okay. There are two plurals: anuses and ani. I suppose you could also say another plural is assholes.
A Latin word that essentially takes the -es ending, instead of the -i ending you would expect.
Actually, the technically correct plural is “anodes”.
I love how these threads bring the jackasses out of the woodwork, and the peanut gallery like me to kibbitz on it.
Every time I see something along this line (Latin words for body parts or functions), I find myself wondering if the Latin words, which are considered “more polite” than the Anglo-Saxon words, were actually polite words or “naughty” words in Latin.
Jackasses, or jackassi?
Jackasines
J.N. Adams’s book The Latin Sexual Vocabulary answers this question in mind-numbing detail. The first sentence of chapter two reads “The basic obscenity for the male organ was mentula.” Other words include verpa, virga, penis, cauda, and a whole host of others.
More on penis from J.N. Adams — apparently it was an obscenity in Classical Latin, but a mild one. “At worst penis was probably a risqué colloquialism of educated speech. Its lack of currency, at least in the later period, is shown by its failure to survive in the Romance languages…” (p 36)
So the genitive singular is “anodis”? There’s almost a pun there about a beautiful Greek youth, but it’s not quite working out.
You can avoid many grammatically nebulous areas by referring to (an octopus, a penis) as a “thingamabob.” (The plural of which, incidentally, is “thingamaboobies.”)
Oh, and I’ve always assumed “penii” was tongue in cheek.
Naw, that’s french kissing.
~ d&r ~
Is the plural of ibex, by analogy with index, ibices?
Is the plural of ibis, by analogy with penis, ibes?
Real question is, do octopi have penii?
Well, my understanding is that octopodes don’t have penes, and octopuses don’t have penises, so I’d guess that octopi don’t have penii, either.
What I found really annoying in college was people who would say “syllabi” in the singular. Okay, fine you’re educated enough to make a Latin plural from syllabus (even though in my personal opinion, better to stick to syllabuses). But now you think it’s so clever that you use it in all cases – “Be sure to pick up a syllabi.” Idiot.
(which puts an entirely new light on phallic-shaped tentacles in hentai) :eek:
You never cease to amaze me, Q. How much did you pay for the SDSAB tag again?
Odd, that’s where I live and I haven’t seen you around.