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What’s in a name?
The word ‘octopus’ comes from Greek ὀκτώπους [októpus: oktō, eight + pous (gen. podos), foot] (via New Latin oktōpous), meaning ‘eight-footed’.
Why ‘eight-footed’ and not ‘eight-legged’ / ‘eight–armed’ / ‘eight-handed’?
Isn’t it more logical to call it ‘eight-limbed’? The animal uses its limbs to move (even ‘to walk’ on two ‘legs’), to grab its food, to feed itself, to grasp, hold and carry objects, to feel things (as it is the octopus’s ‘limbs’ that bear most sense organs).
In different sources, eight ‘feet’ are referred to as ‘arms’ or appendages’, ‘tentacles’, or ‘feelers’.
Perhaps, ‘tentacles’ should be preferrable to refer to this animal’s limbs: the word comes from Latin tentaculum, from Latin tentare, temptare ‘to feel, try’.
The plural form: octopi or octopuses or octopodes?
The plural form for ‘octopus’ is octopuses, (not ‘octupi’!) because it follows Greek, not Latin, rules for plurals.
(Actually, in Greek the plural form of ‘octopus’ was ὀκτώποδες [oktopodes], not octopuses. So, the plural ‘octopodes’ is also used but it’s rare.)
Animalism Blog 
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