Hello Thomas, Thursday, March 6, 2003, 3:08:40 AM, you wrote:
TF> Hello Melissa, TF> On Wed, 5 Mar 2003 11:57:14 -0800 GMT (06/03/03, 02:57 +0700 GMT), TF> Melissa Reese wrote: >> Actually, no anti-virus will catch any "virii", because "virii" isn't >> even a word. :-) "Viruses" is the proper plural form of "virus". TF> Thank you! On this list I was starting to get the feeling I am the TF> only one who uses "viruses" as the plural of virus. I didn't want to TF> say anything, not being a native speaker and all, but I have now TF> bookmarked those webpages. ;-) Actually, virus is a Latin word and the one and only plural(*)(in Latin) is: <tadaa> VIRI People who talk about virii try to make a plural of a plural. :-) The way languages treat foreign words differs and most of the time is not even consistent. The latin plural for aquarium is "aquaria". Which is used in English too, along with "aquariums". Why this is not the case for virus, I don't know. According to Webster's the plural is viruses. The Oxford Illustrated does not mention a plural form. But this is getting Off Topic and I am not a member of TBOT yet, so I will end it here or continue privatly... (*): nominative -- Best Whishes, Mark using The Bat! 1.63 Beta/7 ________________________________________________ Current version is 1.62 | "Using TBUDL" information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html
