[OT] Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: LibreOffice website security

On Sat, 13 Jul 2013, Paul wrote:

> Well, to be technical, it should be "viruses" in English, although
> "virii" or "viri" is (or used to be) common in computer and early
> internet circles. "Virae", "virusen", "viru... viri... vi... nasty
> things" and other forms are used, either in jest or self-recognition
> of one's lack of complete linguistic knowledge. While the word has no
> plural in Classical Latin, Neo-Latin defines "vira", "viris" and
> "virorum".

'vira' and 'viris' are just forms of 'virus' the way "he", "his" and 
"him" are forms of masculine singular pronoun.

of course one doesn't find 'vira' in actual Latin texts but one 
doesn't find the plural of 'slime' in actual English texts either.

computer people misunderstand how Latin works so some know the plural 
for many words ending in '-us' is '-i' or '-ii' so they assume this is 
true of 'virus' -- though they don't think the plural of 'status' is 
'stati'!

but I agree 100% - in _standard_ English the plural is 'viruses' 
(there is no 'virusses' or 'virae') but now in computer circles it can 
be 'virii' or whatever they want.

> It can also be regarded as having no plural, although that
> doesn't seem to be common in English. Programmers are, however, known
> to have a somewhat humorous take on English, so sticking to "viruses"
> is probably a little boring... :)

yep. sounds 'different' and edgy.

F.

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plural_form_of_words_ending_in_-us
>
> http://www.ofb.net/~jlm/virus.html
>
> Paul
>
>
> On Sat, 13 Jul 2013 11:13:09 +0200
> Luuk <luuk34@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On 12-07-2013 11:56, Luuk wrote:
> > > virusses (or virae)
> >
> > it should be:
> > virus
> >
> > thanks,

--
Felmon Davis

Words must be weighed, not counted.

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