How many legs does an octopus have ?

8…

a better question…how many toes and fingers do they have?

They have “8 feet” (which is what the name actually means).

Basically, they have 8 tentacles, which they use as their limbs, they don’t differentiate between them, so they can be called “arms” or “legs”, but the literature seems to suggest “arm” is a more common use.

None

0. An octopus is a cephalopod – an invertebrate, and has tentacles, not legs. Of course, if you ran across a giant mutant octopus while diving for pearls, and it ate you, it would then have two.

Octopuses are characterized by their eight arms, usually bearing suction cups. Squid have 8 arms and 2 tentacles.

“Octopuses are bilaterally symmetrical, like other cephalopods, with two eyes and four pairs of arms.”

It has 8 sucker-bearing arms

@IchtheosaurusRex – “Of course, if you ran across a giant mutant octopus while diving for pearls, and it ate you, it would then have two.” That made me laugh!

squids have 8 same-length legs and two longer ones for catching their prey(it was in discovery i think) and octopus…well, we all know that octo- means 8… as in octagon. thatrs a helpful analogy!!

Just enough.

If its of the fluther species it only has 3 and a gorgeous pair of specs!

@bpeoples: That’s almost correct! It’s actually an interesting story. “eight feet” is where the word ‘octopus’ comes from, but it doesn’t actually mean that. In Greek, they were called “octopodes” (singlular: octopod) which is literally octo = eight, pod = foot. When the Romans borrowed the word, they substituted the ending -pus instead of -pod because Latin nouns typically ended in -us, but “pus” doesn’t mean anything in Latin by itself. The Latin for foot would be “ped”. You might be wondering why Latin ‘ped’ and Greek ‘pod’ are so similar, and the reason is that both are derived from the same language many thousands of years ago, Proto-Indo-European.

@La_chica_gomela: Actually, to continue the etymology discussion, the ancient Greek word was “octopous”, although the plural was “octopodes”. (From okto, eight and pous (plural podes), foot.)

The “six arms and two legs” reference was talking about the functions of the tentacles rather than an actual anatomical difference. Studies have found that the octopus tends to consistently use the same three pairs of tentacles for manipulating objects, much as we use our hands and arms. The remaining two tentacles, like our legs, are rarely used for anything other than motion.

So the “leg/arm” reference is just an analogy to human anatomy.

@theabk: Well, a PhD linguist told me the information that I wrote. I stand by it. @Harp: Care to weigh in?

@La_chica_gomela: What you said was right, it’s just that the singular was octopous rather than octopod.

She told me that the singular was octopod in Greek. That’s what I understood her to say anyway.

I know multiple is “octopie” which tastes great with real whipped cream and ice cream on the side.

It seems that ὀκτώποδ- (octopod-) is not the actual singular form in Greek, but only a stem, which would never be used as a stand-alone. The correct singular form is ὀκτώπους (octopous).

removed because i’m a dolt
@Harp: Okay, thanks for clearing that up.

@La_chica_gomela – actually in “I was joking ville”. I have no idea what it is. I am terrible at English. I never had a descent teacher. My best teacher has been Gail.

@Bri_L: Oh, hahahaha. My B. Durr, ice cream + pie. I’m such a dope. Sorry!! I’m like, kicking myself!

@La_chica_gomela – Not a worry. You all had a nice conversation going, I probably should have kept that one to myself.

@Bri_L: No, it was funny! I was just in pseudo-linguist mode, I guess.

ROFL 8! :) Octo means 8, so octo pus. =)

I know octo = 8 but i always classed them as tentacles , never as arms or legs….

OH I see what you mean now. That makes sense. I see where your coming from. Well I don’t think they have legs do they?