Just in case anyone is interested, "virus" is originally a Latin noun
(meaning "slime" among other things), but it was of the neuter
gender. The plural of a neuter Latin noun ending in -us also ended
in -us (rather than -i for masculine nouns whose singular ended in
-us). So, if anyone is tired of contorting their tongues, or their
keyboard fingers, around a -ii ending for "virus" - "virii" - they
have an excuse to resort to either the Latin plural "virus" or the
anglicised plural "viruses". To add strength to their cause of
dropping the invented plural, they might mention to officious critics
that the stem of "virus" would preclude adding an "i" to the changing
endings as with "virii".
If you are still reading... I have always thought that "syllabus" was
a neuter Latin noun and have therefore resisted the temptation to
refer to anything other than "syllabuses". But my 20 year-old
Shorter Oxford Dictionary tells me that the etymology is less
straightforward. It was apparently a misprint ("syllabos") from
"sittybos" in a 1470 edition (of the Dictionary I assume). A
spurious Latin word emerged thereafter, with a Greek version being
invented later. The consequence is that we have a choice of plurals,
neither of which is based on a classical language (except for a loose
connection with the Latin for "syllable", "syllaba").
I know that this will have excited many people, but I urge you to
calm yourself in preparation for your celebrations of the passing of
2002.
It is somehow more interesting to be starting a new, asymetric
year... down with palindromes!
A wafer-thin mint m'sieu?
Chris
--
<|_:-)_|>
C M I Barker
Cambridgeshire, Great Britain.
?
+44 (0)7092 251126
mailto:imagopus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.threeshoes.co.uk
http://homepage.mac.com/zuiko
... a nascent photo library.
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