Talk:hoodla

RFV discussion: March–June 2014
Really? 18:25, 22 March 2014 (UTC)
 * In Google Books there are several variations of a joke about a Latin professor (here, for instance), and another humorous use here- but also a couple that aren't explicitly jokes (here and here. There are similar results in Google Groups, with a couple not explicitly labeled as jokes here and here.


 * It's not at all common, since it requires knowledge of Latin declensional endings to get the joke. If kept, I think it should be labeled as humorous. Chuck Entz (talk) 19:14, 22 March 2014 (UTC)


 * The creator apparently wasn't sure ; I have added "nonstandard, humorous". Equinox ◑ 19:16, 22 March 2014 (UTC)
 * It doesn't require that much knowledge of Latin; knowledge of English examples like spectrum/spectra and bacterium/bacteria is enough for a person to get the joke. Likewise if I were to jokingly use the word walri even people who've never had a Latin class in their life would get it. —Aɴɢʀ (talk) 19:34, 22 March 2014 (UTC)
 * ... and if the joke is made often enough, the plural starts to be accepted, as for hippopotami (though I suppose they do live in fluvii, and Livingstone used the illogical plural long before Flanders and Swann). If someone famous starts to call buses "bi" (as an MP once did for omnibi), will that become an accepted plural?    D b f  i  r  s   23:00, 22 March 2014 (UTC)
 * What's illogical about hippopotami? It's the correct Latin plural. The ones that rub me the wrong way are and . —Aɴɢʀ (talk) 18:32, 24 March 2014 (UTC)
 * What's illogical is using another language's plural morpheme when a suitable one exists in one's own language. You don't see Latin speakers using hippopotamoe just because that would be the Latinization of the correct Greek plural. --WikiTiki89 18:42, 24 March 2014 (UTC)
 * ... and the word came from Greek as much as from Latin (late Greek ἱπποπόταμος, from ἵππος horse + ποταμός river), hence my joke about fluvii.  I agree with your dislike of the much more obviously wrong "octopie" and "platypie".    D b f  i  r  s   19:12, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Hippopotamoe: known associate of Rhinocecurly and Larryphant.
 * Octopie: eight servings o' pie.
 * Platypie: a plate o' pie. If cut into eighths, synonymous with octopie.
 * Okay, I'm done punning. Hippopotamoe was too good to pass up.  &#8209;&#8209; Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 19:27, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
 * No, but English speakers are suspicious of words that have too many [əs]/[əz] sequences in a row. It's like the old joke: "Q: What's the correct plural of :, , or ? — A: ." —Aɴɢʀ (talk) 18:50, 24 March 2014 (UTC)
 * That's probably what leads processes to be pronounced processees, but logical explanations of a phenomenon don't make the phenomenon logical. --WikiTiki89 19:02, 24 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Also, it seems to me that sequences of S's don't sound good formally, but are totally acceptable colloquially, creating a backwards world where correct plurals (and possessives) are unacceptable in formal language. --WikiTiki89 19:05, 24 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Added four of Chuck Entz’s citations to the entry, as well as an etymology section explaining its pseudolatin origin. — Ungoliant (falai) 18:35, 16 April 2014 (UTC)


 * RFV passed: attesting quotations are in the entry. --Dan Polansky (talk) 08:31, 28 June 2014 (UTC)