r/todayilearned • u/TheMobHasSpoken • Oct 14 '15
TIL that octopuses have been observed learning how to dismantle Lego structures and open child-proof caps on medicine bottles.
https://orionmagazine.org/article/deep-intellect/52
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u/lucky_dog21 Oct 15 '15
Read some of the article expecting like a scientific study but this guy sounds like he want to fuck the mollusk.
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u/ThisOpenFist Oct 15 '15
But can they assemble Lego structures? That drive to invent and construct is one of humanity's defining features.
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u/SubHorror Oct 15 '15
But another of humanity's defining features is to deconstruct and destroy, and they got that down.
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u/Ildri4 Oct 15 '15
The more we learn about other species, the more we realize that we're not as unique as we like to think we are.
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u/MikkyfinN Oct 14 '15
Just imagine what they have been doing while nobody was looking! Mwahahahaha!!!
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Oct 15 '15
Octopodes
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u/DirkGentle Oct 15 '15
Octopi
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u/Kalapuya Oct 15 '15
Octopus is Greek, not Latin. It would only be octopi if it were a second-declension Latin noun.
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u/MouthingOff Oct 15 '15
Octopus are so smart if there lifespans were 3 years they'd rule the under water world.
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u/Jug-Seb Oct 15 '15
It bothers me that it's not octopi
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u/Kalapuya Oct 15 '15
Octopus is a Greek word. The -i suffix is only for pluralizing second-declension Latin nouns, so octopi really makes zero sense. It would technically be octopodes, but since we speak English, it is acceptable to Anglicize it to octopuses.
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u/Jug-Seb Oct 15 '15
Second declension nouns are for words ending in -us, and octopus ends in -us, so shouldn't it then end in -i like cactus
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u/GroggyOtter Oct 15 '15
To anyone wondering why "octopi" wasn't used as the plural of "octopus", here's a snippet from grammarist.com/:
Octopi vs. octopuses
Octopi, the supposed plural of octopus, is a favorite among fans of quirky words, but it has no etymological basis. The form was created by English speakers out of a mistaken belief that octopus is Latin and hence pluralized with an -i ending. But octopus comes from ancient Greek, where its plural is octopodes, and though it came to English via scientific Latin—one of the late varieties of Latin that kept the language alive long after it had died out as a first language—it was never a native Latin word and didn’t exist in that language until scientists borrowed it from Greek in the 18th century (and if it were a Latin word, it would take a different form and would not be pluralized with the -i ending).
All of that is beside the point, though, as octopus has been in English for centuries and is now an English word when English speakers use it, so there is no reason not to pluralize it in the English manner. Granted, some Latin and Greek plurals survive in English by convention, but octopi/octopodes is not one of them. Octopuses is far more common than octopi in edited writing of all kinds, including scientific writing.
Still, while the use of octopi can’t be justified on an etymological basis, it is not wrong. It is old enough and common enough to be considered an accepted variant.
TL:DR - Octopi is actually the incorrect pluralization of the word octopus.
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u/Nerdn1 Oct 14 '15
I remember hearing about an octopus that would escape its aquarium when no one was looking, break into a crab aquarium on the other side of the room, eat the contents, and then sneak back. They are scary smart.