Re: another VX site?

[der Mouse <mouse () rodents montreal qc ca>]

> In the English language, the standard plural of virus is viruses.

> > [..."viri"...]
> Have you consulted your favorite Latin dictionary in this matter?
> [...]
> PS: Yes, the word "virus" stems from the Latin language, thus it is
> correct to look it up in a Latin dictionary ;)

That doesn't necessarily follow; for example, the word "perception"
also stems from Latin, but you won't find correct English inflections
of it by looking in a Latin dictionary.

In any case, these periodic tempests in teapots about "viri" vs "virii"
vs "viruses" vs etc rather spectacularly miss the point: it's not
*supposed* to be the standard English plural.  Hackish English has a
very long tradition of lifting grammar rules thet either don't exist in
English at all or exist only as imports or fossils (cherub->cherubim,
ox->oxen, etc) and applying them in linguistically inappropriate ways,
as a form of linguistic playfulness.  That, applied to the Latinate
rule that pluralizes -us as -i (which appears in English in words such
as "focus"->"foci"), is where "viri" actually comes from, and as such I
cannot find fault with it.

/~\ The ASCII                           der Mouse
\ / Ribbon Campaign
 X  Against HTML               mouse () rodents montreal qc ca
/ \ Email!           7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39  4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B
_______________________________________________
Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts.
https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec
Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.