Elvises -> Elvi(i)

[Wilson Gray]

I take it that "periodically" is not meant as a pun, in this context. ;-)

And, of course, there's "[medium,] media" > "mediae / medias."

-Wilson

On 8/6/07, Dave Hause <dwhause at jobe.net> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dave Hause <dwhause at JOBE.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Elvises -> Elvi(i)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> And I have been periodically railing for several years at a series of
> gynecologists who use "labia majora/minora" as a singular.  A few years ago
> I looked at my surgical pathology database and found about fifty instances
> of inappropriate plural, along with three corrct singulars, none used by
> gynecologists.
> Dave Hause, dwhause at jobe.net
> Waynesville, MO
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
>
> Cf. "stewardi" for "stewardesses". Sometimes it's just a joke, but ....
>
> >So this is a kind of double-barreled one here: the evidently
>
> 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.
>
> In theory "octopi" vs. "octopii" is similar but I guess "octopi" has
> been used so much that it's become sort of 'correct'.
>
> 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?
>
> Another common event: double pluralization, e.g., "diverticulum" >
> plural "diverticula", taken as 1st declension singular, > plural
> "diverticulae".
>
> Another: wrong singularization, e.g., "mitochondria" >
> "mitochondrium", "nares" > "nare".
>
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