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Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other

nature.com

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Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other

#31

Post by pacaro »

4gotunameagain wrote: post #4

May I suggest a book to anybody that finds cephalopods interesting, especially given the connection with consciousness which is a recurring topic in these circles: Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness My only critique is that the plural spelling is octopuses and not octopi , just like the article. Octopuses just looks wrong and sounds funny, I stand my ground. Yes yes I know that i…

Or you can choose not to use the inflectional morphology of another language on a loanword. Especially in a case like octopus where it (arguably) isn't a loanword

Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other

#32

Post by colechristensen »

rojobuffalo wrote: post #16

it's interesting how the constraint of being in water limits inhabitants from developing technologies like fire and throwing projectiles for hunting. octopuses seem like they have the physiology and neurology to figure out projectiles and even grinding a sharp point, but that strategy wouldn't give them the same boost it did early humans because of the drag of water. construction and engineering is also made difficul…

Octopus species just don’t live long enough to develop much intelligence or culture. Most of them only live a year and die after reproducing.

Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other

#33

Post by bananarchist »

annyeonghada wrote: post #27
bananarchist wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the plural is octopodes, just like cactus->cactodes, virus->virodes and surplus-surplodes (my favorite)

In latin the word virus does not have an attested plural[1] but if we model it from the other neuter nouns of the second declension it would be "vira". [1] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/virus#Declension_4 The plural of surplus is surpluses[2]. It would be *surplures/surplura in latin, so it is an English/French original. It doesn't make sense from an historical linguistic perspective to have a stem in dental "d" whe…

Your surplodes of evidence will never sway me and my linguistodes degree

Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other

#35

Post by intrasight »

rojobuffalo wrote: post #16

it's interesting how the constraint of being in water limits inhabitants from developing technologies like fire and throwing projectiles for hunting. octopuses seem like they have the physiology and neurology to figure out projectiles and even grinding a sharp point, but that strategy wouldn't give them the same boost it did early humans because of the drag of water. construction and engineering is also made difficul…

It's interesting then to contemplate what kind of society we would have if we had developed our level of sentience but done so under water. Anybody know of any good sci-fi that explores that?

Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other

#36

Post by cph123 »

bananarchist wrote: post #9
4gotunameagain wrote: post #4

May I suggest a book to anybody that finds cephalopods interesting, especially given the connection with consciousness which is a recurring topic in these circles: Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness My only critique is that the plural spelling is octopuses and not octopi , just like the article. Octopuses just looks wrong and sounds funny, I stand my ground. Yes yes I know that i…

No, the plural is octopodes, just like cactus->cactodes, virus->virodes and surplus-surplodes (my favorite)

I googled "cactodes" and this comment was the 7th result on the first page.

Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other

#37

Post by cnelsenmilt »

colechristensen wrote: post #28
daveslash wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be a word like "fishes". I once saw "fishes" on an interpretive sign at an aquarium and some folks were mocking such and obvious grammatical error. Turns out, "fish" is the correct way to refer to multiple individual fish as a group, whereas "fishes" is the correct way to refer to multiple species of fish. I wonder if "octopi" might refer to multiple octopus without making any indication as to weather they are…

There’s no right way. Octopus is a word created in modern scientific latin by nonnative (scientific) speakers out of greek parts brought into English. There are no real rules there. It is not a loanword from Greek, it was meant to be a scientific latin origin word, but not native latin like other Latin words that have -us as endings for nouns. It’s a mess, there’s no answer, pluralize as you like but don’t go telling…

Personally I've always preferred to muddy the waters by treating it as a fourth-declension noun, so that its plural would be octopūs.

Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other

#38

Post by intrasight »

colechristensen wrote: post #32
rojobuffalo wrote: post #16

it's interesting how the constraint of being in water limits inhabitants from developing technologies like fire and throwing projectiles for hunting. octopuses seem like they have the physiology and neurology to figure out projectiles and even grinding a sharp point, but that strategy wouldn't give them the same boost it did early humans because of the drag of water. construction and engineering is also made difficul…

Octopus species just don’t live long enough to develop much intelligence or culture. Most of them only live a year and die after reproducing.

Some live to five years. Long enough to get clever.

Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other

#40

Post by bmitc »

bananarchist wrote: post #9
4gotunameagain wrote: post #4

May I suggest a book to anybody that finds cephalopods interesting, especially given the connection with consciousness which is a recurring topic in these circles: Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness My only critique is that the plural spelling is octopuses and not octopi , just like the article. Octopuses just looks wrong and sounds funny, I stand my ground. Yes yes I know that i…

No, the plural is octopodes, just like cactus->cactodes, virus->virodes and surplus-surplodes (my favorite)

Either is fine. Octopuses or octopodes. The latter is the technical answer, but the former is acceptable and probably even more common. Although it is based on a Greek word, English isn’t Greek.
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