What????????????? Did you get the license plates?
On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 7:53 PM, john gilmore <john_w_gilm...@msn.com>wrote: > We have been around this way before. The latin word 'virus' is an uncommon > 2nd-declension neuter noun. (Most 2nd-declension neuter nouns end in 'um' > in the nominative singular.) Thus 'virus' has no latin plural. If one is > needed in English 'viruses' is available. > > The very common latin word 'vir', man, has the nominative plural 'viri', > men. Moreover, 'ii' is impossible qua suffix: it can occur only when a stem > ends in 'i', as in radius==>radii. > > Latin dropouts would indeed be well advised to avoid attempting to form the > plural of -us words. They are too problematic: the singular 'opus' has the > plural 'opera'; the singular 'octopus' has the plural 'octopodes', etc., > etc. It is far better, albeit subliterate, to speak of octopuses than of > octopi. > > John Gilmore Ashland, MA 01721-1817 USA > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO > Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html > -- "Those who can make you believe religious absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers. Denis Diderot "Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." Denis Diderot ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
