Talk:Octopus

Habitat & Taxonomy

You might want to borrow some of the text in Taxonomy and put it in Habitat. Also Cirrina is an article, you might want to borrow some of it, too. Siuenti (씨유엔티)

Playing with the article's talk about pluralization

There's an HTML comment at the top of the article saying not to change "octopuses" to "octopi". Whoever wrote it must note that someone might make an edit that not only changes all non-mention uses of "octopuses" to "octopi", but also changes:

The alternative plural "octopi" is considered grammatically incorrect because it wrongly assumes that octopus is a Latin second declension "-us" noun...

...to...

The alternative plural "octopuses" is considered grammatically incorrect because it wrongly assumes that octopus is a native English word...

Do you understand this as a valid edit?? (The ellipsis at the end suggests that I don't know what would follow it should the edit be.) For anyone who sees this talk page post, please try to look for a way to put something in this article that cannot be altered to reflect the "octopi is correct" point of view. This section shows that the main sentence talking about the plural "octopi" can. Georgia guy (talk) 11:35, 23 August 2022 (UTC)

No, not a valid edit, because (1) the vast majority of nouns English borrows from other languages have regular English plurals; and (2) those who oppose the plural octopi do so because they are educated enough to know that it is not one of that class of Latin borrowings that changes singular -us to plural -i. Koro Neil (talk) 02:09, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

Only way to prevent editing is RPP, and we'd need to demonstrate the need for that Chiswick Chap (talk) 08:30, 24 August 2022 (UTC)

Danger to Humans

In the Danger to Humans section it says all octopus are venomous but only a specific kind is lethal to humans. Then, in the same para, it goes on with sentences about "bites" doing this and that, and bites occurring here and there. But it's not clear if the topic has changed to the one lethal type of octo, or if it's discussing bites, in general, at that point. Probably needs sentences to either start with, "[type] octopus bites..." do this and that. Or it needs to just be a para, specifically, and only about that type. 142.196.240.158 (talk) 21:48, 17 July 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 13 July 2024

I want to link the blue ringed octopus where it talks about a blue-ringed octopus Mutediamond8385 (talk) 23:54, 13 July 2024 (UTC)

 Not done: The article is already linked and should not be linked multiple times per MOS:LINK. '''[[User:CanonNi]]''' (talk • contribs) 12:45, 14 July 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 21 November 2024

pseudomorphs" to "Pseudomorph#In other fields 65.128.232.18 (talk) 02:10, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

Something got very broken with the form. I'll rewrite the request.65.128.232.18 (talk) 02:12, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

In the second paragraph of the section Defense, change the wikilink "Pseudomorph#Pseudomorph in other fields|pseudomorphs" to "Pseudomorph#In other fields|pseudomorphs". Presumably the section got renamed, and the section link is now broken.65.128.232.18 (talk) 02:14, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

 Done Skynxnex (talk) 06:24, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

ok-TOP-uh-da?

I have never heard anyone say anything but ‘oc-to-‘po-da with the major stress on oc- and -po. The word is unambiguously octo (8) + poda (feet). Even though the pronunciation guide on the page is sourced, has anyone actually heard it pronounced with the stress on -top in any dialect? 104.246.161.131 (talk) 04:13, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

That's just how Greek works: a consonant followed by a vowel are pronounced together. Like Hexameter is derived from hexa (6) + meter (measure) but is pronounced hex-am-eter. Helicopter#Etymology is similar. Reywas92^Talk 16:30, 28 November 2024 (UTC)