Shrimp(s) and prawns

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:52 PM -0500 3/12/09, Kari Castor wrote:
>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.

As in "I looked 'em (right) in the ____"?

LH

>
>
>On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 1:47 PM, David Bowie <db.list at pmpkn.net> wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  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.
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org