> Ok I finally have to ask why everyone here uses the term LXen when referring
> to their LX in plural.
Can't really speak for everyone, but my _guess_ is that
"hackish" plurals have crept into the list's memeset.
Hackers (in the older sense of the word, not the
"security-crackers and kids who use 1eet 5p34k" sense)
often like to a) apply obscure and/or obsolete plurals
based on a word's language of origin even when those
are no longer in common use, and b) deliberately misapply
those same endings to words which _sound_like_ the ones
that actually take foreign plurals.
Hence, since the plural of "ox" is "oxen", the plural
of "Vax" is "Vaxen" (natural and expected to the hackish
ear) and occasionally the plural of "box" is "boxen"
(deliberately silly but by no means unfamiliar or strange).
"LXen" sounds like the same thing to me.
I could, of course, be wrong about the reason for "LXen".
> LXes yes, it sounds right but LXen throws me every time.
There's the funny thing -- even though I can't recall
ever having said "LXen", it looks right to my eye and
sounds almost-right aloud. OTOH, for me, "cherubs"
looks just a little off 'cause I expect to see "cherubim",
"Unixes" for different flavours of Unix looks very wrong
(I expect to read "Unices" or a longer phrase that avoids
constructing a plural of "Unix"), "data" is plural, and
various Greek- and Latin-derived words need "-ai", "-ae",
"-i", "-a", or "-oi" plurals even when my dictionary
tries to reassure me that an English "-s" or "-es" is
considered acceptable.
For me, "LXes" sounds right but looks wrong. But I'd
never really thought about it carefully until this moment.
-- Glenn
PS: Yes, yes, if I saw two cars bearing the Lexus badge
in a parking lot, I'd want to describe them as "Lexi".
PPS: For more clue regarding hackish use of language,
the front-matter and appendices of _The_New_Hacker's_Dictionary_
would be quite useful. Entire text available online, too.
