On Wed, Oct 22, 2003 at 03:55:19PM +0200, Nicos Gollan wrote: > It's "grammar". > > On Wednesday 22 October 2003 15:45, Roberto Sanchez wrote: > > Not trying to start a flame-fest here, but the correct plural form of > > virus is viruses. > > Last thing I heard was that the original word had no plural at all, so as I > see it we're all free to write what we want. "Little dead protein strands in > protective protein hulls" is my favourite, but "valid reasons to shoot the > a**holes who wrote 'em" is a close second. :-) >
Languages evolve by consensus. I saw a great proggie on TLC once about the guys who decide what is and isn't a word. There are some spectacular flamefests in the professional societies about it. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=virii "No entry found for virii." My personal pet peeve is: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=octopi oc·to·pus ( P ) Pronunciation Key (kt-ps) n. pl. oc·to·pus·es or oc·to·pi (-p) Octopus is greek. The correct plural is octopuses damn it! :-) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
