On Sat, 03 Mar 2007 08:38:21 -0700, RWEmerson
<foolish_consistency@hobgoblin.com> wrote:
: Robert Coe wrote:
: > On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 00:56:15 -0500, Drumstick <no_thanks@you.com> wrote:
: > : In article <labolide-4881A7.21023925022007@news.giganews.com>,
: > : labolide@spacegmail.com says...
: > : > Sorry, Drum. I've been reading the occasional virus threat story for
: > : > years now. Still never been a real one.
: > : > BTW - how many Windows viruses are there now?
: > : >
: > : >
: > : Couple of things to consider folks:
: > : 1. The past is no guarantee of the future.
: > : 2. There was a time (and I'm old enough to remember it) when PCs didn't
: > : get viri either.
: >
: > If you insist on getting cute with Latin words, you should at least do it in
: > the right case. The accusative plural of "virus" (assuming it's a
: > 2nd-declension masculine noun) is "viros".
: >
: > But since this use of "get" is idiomatic in English, you may be safer using
: > ablative instead (as in "infected by means of a virus"). That would be
: > "viris".
: >
: > : 3. Humility is an honorable trait....keeps you out of trouble.
: > : <smile>
: > :
: > : As for the Mac's track record, no argument as I have never owned one.
: > : Worked on one at work once (IIe no less!) and it was a nightmare! Two
: > : versions of Basic, flaky hardware and SLOW as smoke even then.... See, I
: > : told you I was old enough.
: > :
: > : May you always be free of viri....but if it's true, I'm betting it won't
: > : last.
:
: The word virus has no classically attested plural form in Latin. In antiquity
: the word had not yet acquired its current meaning. It denoted something like
: toxicity; venom; a poisonous, deleterious, or unpleasant agent or principle;
: or poison in the abstract or general sense[2]. Since virus in antiquity denoted
: something noncountable, it was a mass noun. Mass nouns, such as air, valor, and
: helpfulness in English, pluralize only under special circumstances, hence the
: nonexistence of plural forms.[3]
:
: Further, it is unclear how a plural might have been formed under Latin grammar
: if the word had acquired a meaning requiring a plural form. In Latin virus is
: generally regarded to be a neuter of the second declension, but neuter second
: declension nouns ending in -us (rather than -um) are so rare that there are no
: recorded plurals.

Well, that would be because neuter nouns ending in -us are almost(?) all
3rd-declension. The one that springs to mind most readily in this context is
"genus" (pl. genera). By whom is virus "generally regarded to be a neuter of
the second declension"? By your own reasoning (with which I guess I don't
quarrel), that seems highly unlikely.

: Possibilities include vira (by analogy with 2nd declension neuters in -um
: such as bellum)

and because the nominative and accusative plural of all neuter nouns ends in
"a".

: and virus with a long u (by analogy with 4th declension masculine such as
: status, although as a neuter noun the plural of virus in the 4th declension
: would be virua). However, none of these is attested[4].
:
: The form virii would not have been a correct plural, since the ending -ii
: only occurs in the plural of words ending in -ius.

Often shortened to (long) -i. But in any case, I never suggested a -ii plural
for virus.

: For instance, take radius, plural radii: the root is radi-, with the singular
: ending -us and the plural -i. Thus the plural virii is that of the nonexistent
: word virius. The form viri might also be incorrect in Latin. The ending -i is
: normally used for masculine nouns, not neuter ones such as virus, although
: there are exceptions such as humus -"soil" which is feminine and vulgus
: -"crowd" which is neuter; moreover, viri (albeit with a short i in the first
: syllable) is the plural of vir, and means "men."
:
: > The genitive plural would be "virorum". But the more Latin-sounding "free from
: > viruses" would again use ablative (e.g., "liber a viris").
: >
: > Since you're old enough to remember the good old days, you may have taken
: > Latin in high school too. ;^)