🚀 go-pugleaf

dmccart@gomez.intel.com (D. J. McCarthy) writes:

>>> people will be buying an awful lot of Pentiums.

>> Or is that Pentia?  Pentiae?  Assistance from people who took some Latin
>> would be much appreciated. :-)


>	I just came across this pluralized-Pentium(tm) question earlier
>today.  Basically I think it boils down to this:  Pentium is not a
>Latin word.  If anything, it's an English word.  It should therefore
>follow standard English pluralization rules.

>	One Pentium.  Two Pentiums.

The word may not be Latin, but it's certainly formed in a 'Latin' way.
Just like the church used to invent new Latin words in the middle ages.
(I wonder, does Intel see itself as the mother-church nowadays...)
If you follow the rules for pluralizing Pentium, assuming of course that
the gender is neutral, as is implied by the ending, the plural would be
Pentia. [If you prefer to regard chips as male, it will be Pentii. But
I don't think the ending will allow that.]
  I think that in English you can choose to use either the English
version of the plural, i.e. Pentiums, or the Latin version, i.e. Pentia.
I don't agree that Pentium is an adjective (even though it may be intended
as such.)
a) The ending is all wrong.
b) People will use Pentium as a noun, no matter what is intended.



******************************************************************************
* Michael McCarthy          |  "Let me take you by the hand/ and lead you    *
* E-Mail:ratava@maths.tcd.ie|   through the Land"  Pink Floyd.               *
* S-Mail:Trinity Hall, Dartry Rd, Dublin 6, Ireland|                         *
******************************************************************************