What 's the equivalent of a prion disease for computers?
Hmm, I would probably say a buggy computer periferal that slowly damages the motherboard via some faulty currents or something. But to be completely honest, I dont think it is possible to compare the two with 100% accuracy. In any case prions are not viri.
And yes it is viri. Virus, viri, n. The latin word for poison or slime (has more than one meaning, depending on context). The us- declination is virus, viri, viro, virum, viro, viri (nominative. pl), virorum, viris, viros, viris. Questions?
Skipjack wrote:And yes it is viri. Virus, viri, n. The latin word for poison or slime (has more than one meaning, depending on context). The us- declination is virus, viri, viro, virum, viro, viri (nominative. pl), virorum, viris, viros, viris. Questions?
Whatever the plural of the Latin word virus may be, the plural of the English word virus, according to all the authorities I could find, is viruses. My Latin is pretty weak, but I do know that there are two different -us declinations. The second declension has the plural -i, the fourth declension has the plural -us (with a long u). I had this discussion in a project where we wanted to talk about more than one status. It seemed that more than one plural form might be acceptable (at least in German), but stati was definitely wrong because status is not second declension in Latin. The best discussion I could find on the plural of virus was this. The conclusion is that virus in Latin had no plural. Viri is the plural of vir and means men.
Last edited by Art Carlson on Fri Mar 12, 2010 8:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
My 2 cent: "Vira" sounds right. Akin and equivalent to "flora and fauna" and "bacteria". The "-a" seems to have some precedence here.
In normal parlance, I don't see how you can have a plural for status as a thing can only be in one state. It seems less a 'latin' word and more a language adaptation to emphasis on the singular 'state'. So if you really were to define someone, or something, as capable of having more than one status then they would simply have 'states'. The status is in respect of something, so the only other way of saying it is, e.g. "He held high status in several areas of research." Is "high status" plural or singular in that sentence? I am not sure it has any quantity, so there is no plural version and if you end up with a sentence that requires a plural version then you should check the rest of your grammar first.
I stand corrected. But as was said in the discussion also, the correct plural would have been viri", had it not been a mass noun originally (I understand it is like "milk" or "mud").
So yeah, I guess you may say viruses, or whatever, though I still think it sounds stupid.
Oh and Art, the other -us declination that you mean would mean that the genetive would be us as well. So virus, virus. Virus was virus, viri however (I checked my old latin dictionary).
Chirs, flora and fauna are actually not really latin words, but the names of two roman goddesses. A plural for that would be kinda strange. But, since they are the -a declination, the plural would be florae and faunae...
English language is about what sounds right and in a living language the silly sounding words get rejected and manipulated. I like "vira", it fits the same sound of words as other such descriptions of biota. "Viruses" sounds so common - but stick with it if you like.