Some clarifications, in no particular order:
The term 'antipus' may well now denote a pterosaur; it is, however, the
Greek and English singular of 'antipodes', as 'platypus' is the [Greek and
English] singular of 'platypodes'.
The Merriam-Webster dictionaries have, I suppose, legitimate uses in
schoolrooms, but their editorial bent is resolutely populist and
anti-intellectual. They, for example, list 'octopi', which is bog Latin,
instead of 'octopodes' as a legitimate plural of 'octopus'. Why? Because
some subliterate Americans use/say it. (For those who fancy such
constructions there is of course no objection to using resolutely English
plurals, here 'octopuses'; but to get a Latin plural wrong is inexcusable.)
'Antipodes' was used as a kind of kenning for 'Australia and New Zealand'
in the UK (not the US)long before Noah Webster published his first
dictionary, as the quotations in the OED entry for it make clear.
Bruno Sugliani has reminded me privately that, as a matter of geometry and
geology, most antipodes, fully 96% of them, are moot, in the sense that they
have one or both of their termini (terminuses?) in an ocean. Cherbourg,
France, and an archipelago just south of New Zealand are, however,
legitimate, non-moot antipodes. To summarize, as is too often the case,
Merriam-Webster got it wrong for the usual ideological reasons. The cult of
usage can be used to sanction almost any usage, however barbaric.
John Gilmore
Ashland, MA 01721-1817
USA
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