"corpii" as plural of "corpus"

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:46 AM +0000 3/10/10, Robin Hamilton wrote:
>>Just for general purposes, what would be the folk-derived plural of
>>"corps"? For that matter, what /is/ the plural of corps?
>>
>>     VS-)
>
>                corpsies

Are we talking about the plural of "corps" or of "corpse"?  I thought
it was the former.

LH

>
>"Little corpsies inside boxes", derived from the well-loved lines of the
>folksong:
>
>        Grocers' boxies  /  without topsies
>        Sandals were  /  for Clemantine.
>
>(Note the significant deployment of Dipodic Metre by the anonymous author of
>the above lines, indicating their folk origin.  The pronounciation of
>"boxes" as "boxies" [thus "corpsies"] in the first line quoted is enforced
>by the internal pararhyme.)
>
>Robin
>
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