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When examining intriguing etymologies, Merriam-Webster often brings up a historic movement to regularize the English language by making it more like Latin, as they do in this video examining the pluralization of octopus.

I know that this movement was at least prevalent in the eighteenth century, and I believe it started even earlier. I tried to research it, but all of my queries returned articles about the modern impact of Latino culture on English and a push to expel foreign language from usage in public American facilities, such as schools.

What is the name for this movement? How could I find more information on it?

Please include additional tags if you feel they are appropriate.

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  • You mean en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… ? – tchrist♦ Jan 2 '18 at 1:28
  • @tchrist I believe so! The video I linked at least talks about a very similar practice: people used octopi even though octopus is not Latin in origin. Thank you for that link! – Chase Ryan Taylor Jan 2 '18 at 1:31
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    It was nothing like a "movement". It was some cranks who got some power in some places, who were predictably ineffectual and silly in their beliefs, and whose legacy, if any, is ignorance. – John Lawler Jan 2 '18 at 3:51
  • @JohnLawler That’s very juicy! I had no idea. It sounds like you could definitely provide some insightful information in the form of an answer. – Chase Ryan Taylor Jan 2 '18 at 5:23
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    You're talking about those responsible for the p in receipt to make it look more like recepta, right? – KarlG Jan 2 '18 at 7:48
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Willam Shakespeare was famous for creating neologisms. Shakespeare introduced many Latin and Greek words into the English language as well as creating many new words.

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    "neologism" is not remotely what is being asked about. There was no "neologism" movement... – curiousdannii Feb 1 '18 at 22:15

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