I hate Greek/Latin plurals, or to hell with "fora"!

The BBQ Pit
#1

Fora. I loathe this word. I realize that “fora” seems to be the word of choice ‘round these parts, but what the hell is wrong with good ol’ Angol-Saxonized “forums”? God, if I even dare try to use the word “fora” in a conversation with most of my friends, I’d be slapped silly for being a pretentious twit. I mean, somebody even used the phrase “every fora.” If you’re gonna be pedantic, at least realize that “every” modifies a singular noun. Yuck. It’s ugly. It’s jarring to hear such a sudden rise of diction in speech. Fora, be gone!

Secondly, there are no “penii” nor are there “octopi.” It’s “penes” and “octopodes” (dictionary.com be damned!) if you’re gonna be pedantic. “Octopus” is a Greek word. (Although, to be fair, it is used in New Latin, and I suppose “octopi” might be correct in that sense.) But that’s not the point.

I don’t wanna hear the proper Greek and Latin plurals. I’m not friggin’ speaking Greek or Lating with you. Hell, do we use German, Polish, Turkish, etc… plurals in words derived from those languages?

What’s wrong with good ol’, simple “-s” or “-es”?

#2

English has an inferiority complex with regard to Latin. This is the same reason you’re supposed to not split infinitives. You can’t split infinitives in Latin because it’s all one damn words, so long ago some pesky grammarians invented the infinitive splitting rule from wholecloth so no one could remind them that they weren’t speaking Latin.

–John

#3

Personally, I’ve always felt that adding “es” to pluralize words ending in “s” is awkward. I think saying “Man, getting to the beach from here is a bitch. I’l have to take 3 different busi.” just sounds cooler. :smiley:

Sua

#4

“Busi”? Surely, you mean “three different bi”.

#5

You are correct that ‘every fora’ is incorrect usage. I believe you are referring to me here, and I apologize for the error. As for the rest: get over it.:wink: Just as it is with antennae and media (plural for antenna and medium respectively,) ‘fora’ is an accepted plural in the English lexicon. If we started eliminating usages of Latin origin, there would be precious little left. [and yes, I realize English is not a Romance language, but it does borrow heavily from Latin.]

#6

You’d better stop saying “data” then. To maintain consistency, you need to go on and on about how we should say “datums” to avoid that dreaded pretentiousness.

#7

Well, except for here, I’ve never heard “fora” used in speech. Honestly. Yes, I do hang around intelligent people. Occassionally.

And I hate “antennae” as well. It’s definitely “antennas” for me. “Mediums” would be okay, save it poses a problem for me. “Mediums” makes me think of psychics. And “media” has pretty much grown into its own word, which I believe one day will be acknowledged and treated as a singular.

“Data” - similar to “media.” And it doesn’t sound pretentious since there really isn’t an accepted alternative. And “data” is also turning into a collective noun used with singular verbs.

And I’m all for it.

#8

According to my dictionary, “antennae” is the plural for insect antennae, “antennas” for TV antennas.

Anyway, if you’re so over foreign plurals, I assume you’ll have no qualms about calling those Italian dishes “spaghettoes,”“tortellinoes,” and “spumonoes”.

And Hamish asks, if there were no fora, what would the flauna eat?

#9

<Insert witty sentence with 25 Latin plurals ending in -a>

<Insert bigassgrinsmilie>

[sub]<Insert “Hey, someone had to do it!” comment>[/sub]

#10

“Flauna?”

#11

Yeah, but those words entered the language in the plural. I don’t even know if in Italian you can refer to one spaghetto (but in Polish, it certainly is “one pierog, many pierogi.” But, as with spaghetti, how often do you speak of just one?)

I don’t know. My particularl aversion is to the word “fora.” It just sounds so wrong to my ears.

#12

The fora and the flauna of the echosystem

#13

“Uno spago” is a string; “uno spaghetto” is a little string; “degli spaghetti” are little strings.

#14

Flauna (n. pl.) – Derived from the French flaneur, this noun refers to young men of indeterminate sexuality loitering idly in hopes of encountering a witty remark not already made 50 years previously by Quentin Crisp.

Or maybe not. :slight_smile:

#15

Fair enough, matt, but my point that these came into the language as plurals and are therefore expempt from Anglicized pluralization, stands. Other Italian words, like “pizza” came into English as singulars. Therefore, in the plural they’re “pizzas” not “pizze” or “pizzi” or however the Italians form their plural.

#16

Fine, but for words like “antennae”, “media”, “data”, “concerti”, et cætera, we acquired both the singular and the plural from the other language.

#17

Oh, on this subject…

Folks, NOT every word that end in “us” is of Latin derivation. When a word ending in “us” is NOT of Latin derivation, you do NOT form the plural by putting “i” at the end.

So… STOP using “hippopotami” as the plural of hippopotamus. The word comes from Greek. So, the plural should be “hippopotamuses.” No matter how awkward it sounds, USE it.

#18

Astorian, my dictionary has “hippopotamus” passing through Latin on its way from Greek to English.

#19

And I suppose a certain obsolete, nauseating term of endearment should be “snooka”.

#20

An excellent suggestion, java, which I will implement immediately.