Shrimp(s) and prawns

[Kari Castor]

That's a fairly typical extension, in my experience, and generally done more
for the sake of foolishness itself than out of any misapprehension of
correctness or desire to sound edumacated.
And it gets done to just about any word that ends with a schwa followed by
an s.  Penis > penii is a favorite.



On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 1:47 PM, David Bowie <db.list at pmpkn.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       David Bowie <db.list at PMPKN.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Shrimp(s) and prawns
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> From:    Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET>
>
> <snip>
>
> > I would call "octopi" acceptable since so many people use it, but it's an
> > etymologically unsound hypercorrection. "Octopus" is Greek and we
> shouldn't
> > be slapping a Latin inflection on a Greek word after it has been borrowed
> > into English.
>
> Some of us use 'octopi' as the plural specifically to annoy pedants.
>
> I would say :-) but i'm actually serious.
>
> (Similarly a lower-cased first-person singular pronoun--but that's a
> different issue.)
>
> I take it further, too--i have family friends by the last name Dutkus,
> and i call them collectively 'the Dutki' (which is actually handy,
> 'cause you don't have to worry about whether you're going on a visit to
> the Dutkuses, the Dutkusses, the Dutkus's, or so on). Not for circus or
> status, though--though i *may* have a zero-plural for status. Not sure
> on that last one, though.
>
> Of course, i'm also enamored with 'corpora' from 'corpus', so i'm
> considered switching those plurals to 'octopora' and 'Dutkora'.
>
> I would say :-) but i'm *almost* serious with that last bit.
>
> Maybe :-?
>
> <snip>
>
> --
> David Bowie                               University of Central Florida
>     Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
>     house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
>     chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.
>
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