The form virii would not have been a correct plural, since the ending -ii only occurs in the plural of masculine and feminine words ending in -ius. For instance, take radius, plural radii: the root is radi-, with the singular ending -us and the plural -i. Thus the plural virii is that of the nonexistent word virius . The form viri would also be incorrect in Latin. The ending -i is normally used for masculine or feminine nouns, not neuter ones such as virus; moreover, viri (albeit with a short i in the first syllable) is the plural of vir, and means "men."
excerpt from reference.com/browse/wiki/ Plural_of_virus I dont know if this has been posted yet, I haven't been keeping up on this thread. ________________________________ From: Gavin Wilby [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, May 15, 2009 2:04 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Haw-haw: New Mac OS X email worm discovered Bill, A thread thats starts "Haw Haw" cannot hope to be considered "professional", and cannot hope to get a professional response. Please don't lecture me on the use of the English language, my country invented it for goodness sake. Its a light hearted topic, with light hearted responses - right up until the point you put your "two pennorth" in. g. On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 11:54 PM, Bill Monicher <[email protected]> wrote: Gavin, Grab a dictionary. In the olden days, they were books that listed words. Lots of 'em -- along with their plurals etc. Nowadays, try http://www.onelook.com/?w=virus&ls=a Although your meaning was clear, Ben is correct. His (and my) pedantry aside, using cutesy variations for common words in a forum of professionals it at best, well, unprofessional. At worst, you look like a dweeb. If you can find even *one* dictionary that lists "virii" I'll apologize. Before you spend a lot of time looking, though, I'll give you a hint. No dictionary referenced by OneLook even lists the word "virii". There are two entries returned by the search, though. One contains the phrase, "generally considered incorrect" and the other is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plural_of_virus Check it out. Regards, --BM On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 3:38 PM, Gavin Wilby <[email protected]> wrote: > Ben, > Wind down your pedant filter slightly hey! There's a good lad. > G. > > On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 11:17 PM, Ben Scott <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 5:40 PM, Gavin Wilby <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> > I dunno - a word that I made up - its obvious that it used to denote >> > multiple virus's. >> >> What does the virus own? >> >> To form a plural in English, on a word that ends in an "s", use >> "es"; thus, "viruses". As one wag once put it: >> >> An apostrophe does not mean, "Look out! Here comes an >> 's'!" >> >> ;-) >> >> I've heard it argued that there is no Latin word "virus", and as >> such, one should follow the English pluralization rules, not Latin. >> >> -- Ben >> >> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ >> ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > > > -- > Gavin Wilby, > Twitter: http://twitter.com/gavin_wilby > GSXR Blog: http://www.stoof.co.uk > Sent from Isle Of Man > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ -- Gavin Wilby, Twitter: http://twitter.com/gavin_wilby GSXR Blog: http://www.stoof.co.uk Sent from Isle Of Man ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
