that ^^^ m'boy marks u out as a NERD....Troleon wrote:There is some controversy about the plural form of virus in the English language.
One position is that viruses is the correct plural; this view can be justified on these grounds:
Encyclopedia (see English plural) and most English language dictionaries give the plural of virus simply as viruses.¹
In English, the plural is normally formed by adding -s or -es, frequently in preference to a loan word's native plural.
In Latin, virii is not the correct plural. The "ii" ending only occurs in the plural of words ending in "ius". For instance, take radius, plural radii: the root is radi-, with the singular ending -us and the plural -i.
In Latin, viri is not the correct plural. The ending -i is used only for masculine nouns, not neuter ones such as virus; moreover, viri is the plural of vir, and means "men".
There is no extant record of virus being used in Latin in a plural form, and it is unclear how a plural might have been formed had the word acquired a meaning requiring a plural form.² Possibilities include vira, following the pattern for neuter nouns in -um – or virus with a long "u", following the example of status. However, none of these are attested.
Another position is that virii can also be justified because:
The spelling virii is linked to a specific technical field (computer science), and so is considered jargon.
The term is today an English language term, not Latin.
....not cool by any chance....
