[Oops. Meant to reply to list.] Circa 2001-Dec-14 13:52:23 -0500 dixit tps12:
: On 13 Dec 2001, Jamin W. Collins wrote:
:
: > Agreed, but the plural of virus is viruses. It's a common misconception
: > that it's virii (I too thought it was). A quick search will reveal the
: > reasons.
:
: My quick search didn't turn anything up, regarding the reason for
: this. Of course, I can see it wouldn't be "virii," but why not
: "viri?"
"virii" is not a word in Latin, but if it were, it would be the plural
of the word "virius". If someone had the name "Virius", e.g. "Antonius
Quintilius Virius", and he were a person of note or influence, then
"Virii" (capitalized) might be the name denoting his extended family.
Then again, it might be the way you would address Antonius Quintilius
if you were familiar enough to call him by his last name instead of his
title, but not familiar enough to use his first name. For example:
"Virii, festum maximum est, sed ubi sunt pulluli?" ("Virius, the
party's great, but where are the chicks?"). As it happens, "Viri"
would mean "belonging to Virius". Note, however, that the Romans
didn't really have capital letters. (Actually, that's a lie: they had
capital letters and used them frequently; they just didn't have
lowercase letters).
"virus" is derived from the Latin "virus", meaning "potent juice,
medicinal liquid, offensive smell or taste, poison, slime, venom".
"Virus" is an irregular neuter noun, but most of it looks like second
declension; its plural in the nominative is, as it happens, "viri".
"viri" is one of several forms of "vir", Latin for "man, male human,
husband, person of courage/honor/nobility". "Vir" is a masculine
second-declension strong r-stem noun:
Singular Plural
Nominative vir viri <-- "men"
Genitive viri <----- virorum ---- "of/belonging to [the/a] man"
Dative viro viris
Accusative virum viros
Ablative viro viris
"viri" is also a form of "vis", Latin for "power, strength, force,
energy, vigor, virtue". "Vis" is a feminine third-declension noun;
"viri" is the dative singular case (used for indirect objects as well
as the objects of some prepositions). Points go to those who can
identify the accusative form of this word.
: Also, while "viruses" might be the most often seen English plural of
: "virus," I don't think anyone can be faulted for pluralizing in the
: language of origin. Though people who use two "i"s should be shot.
While there's no real reason not use "viri" as the plural for "virus"
if you're writing in Latin, note the number of confusing forms of words
that all look the same: vir, virus, vis, and this hypothetical guy
named Virius.
Can you imagine the confusion? "Microsoft IIS is famous for viri."
Famous for men? Famous for strength or power? Or famous for viruses?
I recommend using the English plural "viruses" when speaking or writing
in English. This makes it clear that you're in fact talking about
viruses instead of about men, power, or some guy named Virius.
--
jim knoble | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://www.pobox.com/~jmknoble/
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