Re: [OT] Virii (sic)

Riley Williams
2001-08-01T06:59:22Z

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.