Trochaisms – Letters make words; sentences make paragraphs

Plurals of the many-footed

I never hugged an octopus
I wonder what they’d think of us?
Would they think us all wusses
not to embrace the octopuses?
And even more with octopi
We’re outnumbered limb (and eye)
or is the word “octopodes“?
I think I’d better stop with these.

Apologies (or blame) to Kory Stamper and Stan Carey, whose benign and mostly blameless commentary inspired this piece of doggerel.
Here’s Kory’s video: Octopus, Octopuses, Octopi, Octopodes, which was on BoingBoing a while back. See also more from Stæfcræft & Vyākarana (h/t Stan).

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Jeremy

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3 responses to “Plurals of the many-footed”

  1. Stan Carey Avatar
    Stan Carey

    Wonderful! I can’t resist joining in, and can be blamed for any cringing that might follow:

    Octopodes, they swim not run,
    They have a beak but not a bill.
    Larger things they tend to shun,
    Littler things they tend ta kill.
    But what an octopus might think –
    Whether singular or plural –
    Is hidden in a cloud of ink
    Obscuring all things cephaloneural.

    Reply
    1. Jeremy Avatar
      Jeremy

      I think “cephaloneural” may be — though transparently decompositional and entirely apt — a personal hapax legomenon for me. Delightful!

      Reply
  2. Octopoem « Sentence first

    […] prompted Jeremy to write a rhyme, Plurals of the many-footed, in which he posed the question: “Would they think us all wusses / not to embrace the […]

    Reply

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