🚀 go-pugleaf

Simon van Dongen (sgvd@pi.net) wrote:
: On or about 21 Oct 1996 18:13:08 PST, Tyler Barnes wrote in
: comp.lang.asm.x86:

: >S_>>Let it be known that the plural form of virus is not virii. It is
: >S_>>viruses.
: >S_>>(Not that this is an english language newsgroup)

: However, Latin didn't stop dead with the end of the Rome as an empire.
: Which is why it's now a medical term, probably coined in the 19th
: century(?). Which might mean that there is an official (i.e.
: Latin-based) plural out there. Given that the original is neuter, IIRC
: the plural would be vira. Anyone out there remember how to conjugate
: neutral nouns ending in -us ?

: Simon van Dongen

It belongs to a group of two or three 2nd declension neuter nouns in -us
which were never used in the plural, probably because no plural form
sounded `right' to the Romans.  `Virii' is totally impossible - it could
only be the plural of a non-existent word `virius'.  

I agree with the person who started this controversy: the only correct
plural in English is `viruses'.  Anything else is pseudo.

Kim
muskb@lure.latrobe.edu.au