Rick Pali wrote:

> Per Jessen wrote:
> 
>>What can I say - in Danish it's used quite commonly as the plural of
>>virus.
> 
> I imagine many non-English words are used quite commonly in Danish!

Quite so :-)

>>Given that it's also listed in wikipedia, I would say it IS already
>>a word, even its correct use may be debated.
> 
> Even putting aside Wikipedia's stature as a source, it says "In the
> English language, the standard plural of virus is viruses," and
> further, "The less frequent variations viri and virii are virtually
> unknown in edited prose, and no major dictionary recognizes them as
> alternative forms." Presumably Vira is even more infrequent than
> these 'less frequent' variations.
> 
> Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Absolutely - but the fact that "vira" has an entry at all seems to
indicate it is at least a _word_. 

http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vira


/Per Jessen, Zürich

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