Elvises -> Elvi(i)

[James Harbeck]

>Plural of "virus": "viri" or "virii"? Of course it is neither,
>facilitating measurement for this one word, maybe. "Virii" seems to
>be the more popular based on quick naive Google.

I see "virii" quite a bit.

>I don't know exactly why "-ii" often occurs instead of "-i". Is the
>_typical_ person wrongly doubling the "i" really the person who has
>such things as "genii" in his everyday vocabulary?

It doesn't need to be in their everyday vocabulary; it just needs to
have been seen and had some effect. I would say that most people have
seen "genii" several times in their lives. And all it would take
would be for some of them to start writing, e.g., "virii" for it to
catch on, as there is a pretty common tendency for people to prefer
the more marked form when uncertain about an uncommon usage.

But if you have another explanation for this -ii plural where -i (or
something else altogether) would be correct, I'm all ears.

James Harbeck.

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