Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/12/21/angry-octopus-punches-fish.html
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Obligs:
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To be fair, their only choices are a punch or a headbutt. I suppose they could bite, but I think that’s beneath them.
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Or, they could be going in for that fist bump, and the fish are being shy.
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Nitpick mode on Its Octopi, not Octopuses Nitpick mode off
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it’s Squidward, isn’t it.
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Looked like self defense to me.
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Well, actually…
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Oh sure, I punch one of my idiot work mates and I talk to HR, but oh look the cute octopi are batting their workmates around like tennis balls, and someone writes a paper about it!
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They can’t. The Octopodians have all the ink.
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Given that their central nervous systems are distributed into the arms, I can see another octopus thinking “Gee, Carl’s 5th arm is a real a-hole.”
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Take it up with Merriam-Webster.
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It’s Greek, not Latin, so it’s octopodes, stress on the second syllable (ok-TOP-uh-deez)
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Nobody likes an Octopedant.
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Maybe he’s an anti-fishist punching not-seas.
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No, it has Greek roots but scientific names are always formally Latin, which is why it’s Octopus and not οκτάπους - you may notice the change to the final diphthong - and species are given names like vulgaris. It just so happens that the Latin plural is still properly octopodes, because the rule you are thinking of where -us becomes -i really only applies to second declension, and this is third. Which you can adopt in English if you want, as you see in some old texts, but most people don’t.
If you are going to be a pedant, please do it properly.
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Turbo Nitpick Mode Engaged: 
OED says:
Inflections: Plural octopuses , octopi , ( rare ) octopodes Brit.
[…]
The plural form octopodes reflects the Greek plural; compare octopod n. The more frequent plural form octopi arises from apprehension of the final -us of the word as the grammatical ending of Latin second declension nouns; this apprehension is also reflected in compounds in octop- : see e.g. octopean adj., octopic adj., octopine adj., etc.
Merriam-Webster: The Many Plurals of ‘Octopus’
tl;dr: “Octopuses” is correct, because it’s a fully naturalized English word, and so may be pluralized in the standard English manner.
“Octopi”, the Latin plural, is commonly used, so it’s standard, in spite of the word’s naturalization.
“Octopodes” is based on the assumption that the word “octopus” comes from Greek. There was such a word in Greek, but it came into English from Latin (which got it from Greek).
<Handy Copyeditorial Advice>
The rule regarding naturalized plurals applies to any word; The foreign plural should really only be used with italicized foreignisms. But many adopted words started out as foreignisms, so the foreign plural is still recognized, and, if widely used, is also standard.
Thus, “cactuses” and “cacti”, f’rex, are both standard.
</>
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“Pedant properly, please.” xD
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