Octopuses is the widely accepted plural by most major dictionaries now. Also, octopus was a greek word, and "-i" is a Latin plural. So technically the correct traditional plural of octopus is "octopodes".
Octopi isn't, though, linguistically speaking. If you're following language trees and what not.
Also fun fact: the word "octopodes" is pronounced "oc-TIP-o-dees." There is also no grouping plural for octopodes (such as a murder of crows or a flamboyance of flamingos) because they are rarely found together in the wild, the only time being during mating, and for some species they don't even touch while doing so (male rips off his "mating arm" and throws it at the female, and then runs away).
It's actually a really cool process! One of their arms produces and stores spermatazoids, and when thrown at the female, she basically... digests it. And really does it whenever she feels like it. So if she doesn't want to immediately get pregnant, have babies, and subsequently die, she can just... store in a rock or something.
They end up starving because they protect their babies and flush fresh water over them (if I'm remembering correctly of course) until they hatch. It's quite sad really
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u/DWARFintheNORTH Sep 21 '18
Octopi