Computer Mice or Mouses?

[Dan Goncharoff]

If mice is commoner, is mouses royal?
DanG


On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 1:54 PM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Computer Mice or Mouses?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Oxford dictionaries online has an entry for mouse that includes the
> following note on usage.
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Is the plural of mouse in the computing sense mice or mouses? People
> often feel that this sense needs its own distinctive plural, but in
> fact the ordinary plural mice is commoner, and the first recorded use
> of the term in the plural (1984) is mice.
> [End excerpt]
>
> http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/mouse
>
>
> While searching I found a fun but fallacious acronymic origin for
> mouse: manually-operated user-select equipment.
>
> http://painintheenglish.com/case/534/
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 1:18 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: Computer Mice or Mouses?
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Does anybody actually use the whole phrase "computer mouses"?
> >
> > Oh. Google says that 169,000 people do, more or less. And that AHD
> endorses
> > both.
> >
> > Shame, shame on AHD.
> >
> > So it looks like Sallie's on her own.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 1:07 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com
> >wrot=
> > e:
> >
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> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject:      Re: Computer Mice or Mouses?
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> > ------
> >>
> >> My quick take is that both are used. People like saying "mouses" because
> >> it almost seems sarcastic--and distinct from live mice.
> >>
> >> But I have another mouse-related issue.
> >>
> >> Amazingly enough, verbs "mouse" and "mouse over" are in the OED. But
> >> neither one corresponds to the use of "mouse over" that appears, for
> >> example, on LanguageLog when one of the bloggers posts a reduced image
> >> of a cartoon.
> >>
> >> Here are the two relevant entries in the OED.
> >>
> >> > 3.=EF=BF=BD=E2=82=AC b. /intr./ /U.S./ to mouse over: to pore over (a
> b=
> > ook). /Obs./
> >> > 1808 /Salmagundi/ 25 Jan. 426 With ... a table full of books before
> >> > me, to mouse over them alternately.
> >> > 1864 B. Taylor in /Life & Lett./ (1884) II. xvii. 422, I have Little
> >> > and Brown's 'British Poets' complete now, so you'll have wherewithal
> >> > to mouse over.
> >> > 1889 F. E. Gretton /Memory's Harkback/ 137 He was ... always 'mousing'
> >> > over books.
> >>
> >> and
> >>
> >> > 6. /intr./ /Computing/. To use a mouse to control an application,
> >> > browse through data, etc. Usually with an adverb, esp. /around/. Also
> >> > /trans./In quot. 1983, a punning reference to the redesign of a
> >> > computer to incorporate a mouse.
> >> > 1981 /ACM SIGSOC Bull/ *13* 118 Overviews are selected by
> >> > 'mousing'=E2=80=A5items on a menu.
> >> > 1983 /InfoWorld/ 31 Oct. 29/1 Apple is mousing around with the II e.
> >> > 1990 /Computer Buyer's Guide & Handbk./ *8* vi. 26/2 We were soon
> >> > zipping through the lessons with a minimum of mousing around.
> >> > 1994 /Microsoft Systems Jrnl./ Aug. 5/2 Moving the mouse over it makes
> >> > the taskbar appear; mousing away makes it vanish=E2=80=94no clicks
> nece=
> > ssary.
> >>
> >> So, "mouse over" does not have a computer-related description and
> >> "mouse" only refers to physically moving the mouse.
> >>
> >> The "mouse over" meaning that I am referring to is neither--to mouse
> >> over means to use the mouse /particularly/ to place the cursor over a
> >> specific position, link, button or image. The relevant act is moving the
> >> cursor, not so much moving a mouse. And, of course, this can be
> >> accomplished by non-mouse devices--such as trackballs (a.k.a. trackball
> >> mouses) and trackpads (which are only known as mouses when it come to
> >> the relevant Windows drivers).
> >>
> >> VS-)
> >>
> >> On 3/21/2012 12:41 PM, Sallie Lemons wrote:
> >> > Appreciate the humor but it really doesn't answer the question.
> >> >
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
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> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --=20
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
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