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I was reading this Reddit post's comments: 'I am the guy with two penises. AMA' (NSFW), and came upon this discussion (of sorts), where the plural of "penis" has been suggested to be either: "penises", "penii", or "penes".

I looked it up and Wiktionary states that "The hyperforeign Latinate penii is occasionally used as the plural in modern English."

Is "penii" or "penes" also correct in other contexts (medical or scientific, perhaps)? What are the correct plural forms of "penis"?

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    In precisely what language and declension does -is in the singular ever become -ii in the plural? You only get -ii plurals in Latin starting from -ius singulars, a situation which clearly does not here obtain.
    – tchrist ♦
    Commented Jan 2, 2014 at 4:45
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    The plural of penis is penes (in some medical literature) or penises.
    – anongoodnurse
    Commented Jan 2, 2014 at 4:52

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Th plural of penis is penises or penes. All the dictionaries are consistent so I don't know what this discussion is all about.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/penis
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/penis?s=t
http://nhd.heinle.com/Definition.aspx?word=penis

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  • Word Origin & History penis 1676, perhaps from Fr. pénis or directly from L. penis "penis," earlier "tail" (cf. Eng. tail in both senses, the sexual one slang), from PIE *pes-/*pesos- "penis" (cf. Skt. pasas-, Gk. peos, posthe "penis," probably also O.E. fæsl "progeny, offspring," O.N. fösull, Ger. Fasel "young of animals, brood"). The proper plural is penes. The adj. is penial. In psychological writing, penis envy is attested from 1924.
    – Peter
    Commented Jan 2, 2014 at 8:58
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    Wiktionary states, regarding "penii": "The hyperforeign Latinate penii is occasionally used as the plural in modern English."
    – galacticninja
    Commented Jan 2, 2014 at 10:05

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