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I just learned (from Pé de Leão here) that in Neo-Latin orthography, Latin words that come from Greek names that end in -οῦς get a circumflex in imitation of the Greek circumflex, e.g. Trapezûs, Hierichûs. See, for example, p. 16 of this summary of Mindaugas Strockis's doctoral dissertation, Accent Notation in the Classical Languages and its Influence on Lithuanian Accent Notation.

So, does octopus get a circumflex?

Ben Kovitz
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  • Apparently the second-declension polypus, polypi was the usual substantive used for "octopus" in Classical Latin; I'm still not sure when or how octopus was used in Latin ... (fdb made some comments on related posts like https://latin.stackexchange.com/questions/371/examples-of-species-whose-latin-and-scientific-names-are-different/871#comment10597_871, https://latin.stackexchange.com/questions/5080/is-there-an-exclusive-word-for-octopus-in-ancient-greek, https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/270/what-is-the-correct-plural-of-octopus/138236#comment967371_138236) – Asteroides Mar 21 '18 at 01:46
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    Just a note to anyone answering this question: According to Strockis' dissertation, Hierichûs (Jericho) should correspond to Ἱεριχοῦς, and that is, in fact, the case according to the spelling of some, such as the geographer Stephanus Byzantius (see pg. 807). However, someone searching for Jericho in Greek will likely find the more common spelling Ἰεριχώ. – Expedito Bipes Mar 21 '18 at 02:42

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No, because in ancient Greek, ὀκτώπους (gen. ὀκτώποδος) does not end in -οῦς, but in -ους. So in Latin it would become octōpūs (gen. octōpodis) with long ū, without circumflex.

Jasper May
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