8 bit virii

From: Shoppa, Tim Sent: Friday, January 04, 2013 10:15 AM I have nothing to add regarding the technical discussion. I just want to point out that there is no such Latin word as "virii". Latin o-stems ("masculines ending in -us in the nominative singular and neuters ending in -um in the nominative and accusative singular", for the classically trained) form their nominative plural with the ending -i. *Only* those o-stems in which an -i- precedes the ending, such as the _gens_ ("family name") _Cornelius_, show a final -ii. (You would refer to all the members of the Cornelius family as the _Cornelii_.) _virus_ is an oddity. It is an o-stem, but it is a neuter, not a masculine (that is, we would expect "virum" if it followed the usual formation rule). Furthermore, it is a mass noun, meaning "slime, poison", rather than a count noun. (Cf. English "milk" vs. "goat"--although it is possible in English to form a plural of a mass noun like "milk", the meaning of "milks" is "kinds of milk, milk from different sources", and Latin does not permit this formation.) So in Latin, _virus_ only occurs in the singular. Now, *in English*, the word "virus" has been borrowed from Latin but is treated by the grammar of English as an ordinary count noun, and the plural is "viruses". I have no objection the formation of a Latinate plural "viri" or "virii", I simply want those making such to do so knowingly. ;-) We now return you to your regularly scheduled topic drift. Rich Alderson Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer Vulcan, Inc. 505 5th Avenue S, Suite 900 Seattle, WA 98104 mailto:RichA at vulcan.com mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/