Re: [OT] Virii (sic)

Vojtech Pavlik
2001-08-01T10:10:18Z

On Wed, Aug 01, 2001 at 07:58:51AM +0100, Riley Williams wrote:
> Hi.
>
> >> on average, there's a timelapse of 53 hours from a virii first
>
> > For some reason, seeing "virii" is somewhat painful to my eye. I
> > know, people invent fantasy plurals, like Vaxen and
> > Unices/Unixen, but somehow this is worse, yes indeed, it is
> > badder.
>
> > [The singular is virus. The plural in English is viruses. In
> > Latin there is no plural - it is even debatable whether virus is
> > a noun in Latin - in any case it is indeclinable.]
>
> During my medical training, it was made abundantly clear that the
> plural of virus is virii. Since the whole idea of a computer virus
> comes from the medical world, I'd have to assume the terminology came
> with it.
>
> I'll stick with what my training taught me.
>
> Best wishes from Riley.
>
> PS: Plural of bacteria is bacterium, from the same source.

Uh? I'd say it's the other way around at least ...

--
Vojtech Pavlik
SuSE Labs