-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
On Friday 14 December 2001 18:40, Jim Knoble wrote:
> "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/
> (GnuPG fingerprint: 31C4:8AAC:F24E:A70C:4000::BBF4:289F:EAA8:1381:1491)
Wow.
That was altogether more information than i will probably ever
need to know on pluralization of latin words. :-)
- --
[scott] :: "ein kalter Tod für den sprecher von Lügen"
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP 6.5.8
iQA/AwUBPBq4cGkF5Bwr8hiXEQIKvQCgmQgOOUi67KaoYpsyJcnQ6MdmMOcAoNCV
/4AC6VKE42AnnJbayFvri5kN
=WO/0
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
