There's no such word as `virii'

From: Damien Broderick (damienb@unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Tue May 13 2003 - 22:58:18 MDT

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    It's like fingernails down a blackboard, it's like it's for its and its for
    it's, but stupider, so here's the thing again:

    As Lee Crocker pointed out the other day, the plural of `virus' is
    `viruses', damn it. If you wish to swagger and show how much Latin you
    know, and sound all medical and hi-tech, and like that, the plural is `viri'.

    NOT `virii'.

    To make a plural from a word ending with the suffix -us, take it off and
    add the suffix -i to the stem. Not two, three or more, just the one. It's
    simple! It's time-saving! It preserves otherwise wasted pixels!

    See, that wasn't so hard?

    Damien Broderick



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