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octopii. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
octopii, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
octopii in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
In imitation of Latin nominative plural forms of nouns ending in -ius, such as radius > radii. Compare walrii and penii.
Noun
octopii
- (nonstandard, proscribed, rare) Misconstructed plural form of octopus.
Usage notes
- The plural form *octopii is doubly incorrect. Firstly, octopus derives from Greek, not Latin; its etymologically-consistent plural form is octopodes. Secondly, even if octopus were a second-declension Latin noun, the plural form would be *octopi; in the correct plurals radii and gladii, with which *octopii is analogous, the first ‘i’s are part of the words’ stems (radi- and gladi-), and not their case endings — for *octopii to be the plural, *octopius would need to be the singular.