Topologically, neither is a donut.
Well, I know how to pluralize “octopus”; should it be “hippopotamodes”?
Octopuses. Hippopotamuses.
Or, if you insist on being all classical about it, octopodes and hippopoamoi.
It’s a standard term when talking about the simplex method for solving linear programming problems. Not my specialty, but something I teach regularly.
Also analytic tableaux, Young tableaux, etc. If someone mentioned “Young tables”, that would be a bizarre affectation.
Some of you had to know this was coming:
– Allan Sherman One Hippopotami
I also understood this to be first said by Erdös, and I am delighted to be corrected. Ignorance fought!
Also, it resolved some confusion for me: why would Erdös say this about coffee, when clearly he was himself a machine for turning amphetamines into theorems?
I mean, I hear Erdös loved his coffee, but he was never afraid to acknowledge the more central role amphetamines played in his (extraordinary) productivity. So it makes sense that someone else said it first.
I would use “toruses” myself, but since this is GQ we should note that there is no way to determine which plural form is correct. There is no factual answer to that question, just a matter of choice or style. My own personal view is that if a word has become so common that it is now part of the English language, treat it by English language rules. But that determination is also subjective, so there is no way to draw a line.
Another interesting situation is the reverse-- where a word enters English as a plural, and then one has to ask how to singularize it. Do you ask for a biscotto when wants only one, or do you ask for one biscotti? I said “biscotto” once to a barista and she looked at me like I was crazy. “Oh, you mean a biscotti?” Yeah, whatever. But then the question becomes, if I want two, do I ask for 2 biscottis?
Generally, if it enters as a plural, it stays a plural. I grew up speaking Polish, so, for me, I know damned well that pierogi is plural, and that a single one is a pierog, but, when speaking English (in most cases), I use pierogi for both the singular and the plural. I’ll also pronounce it in the local manner, which is like “puh-ROH-ghee” rather than the Polish, which is more like “pyeh-ROH-ghee” (with a “flap r” instead of a retroflex-r.) I do often use the correct Polish forms if I’m talking in English to a native Polish speaker. (For example, when talking to my mom, I may say “can you pass me a pierog?”)
+1
“Torus” is a Latin masculine noun, and the plural form is “Tori”. “Toruses” is a Latin word that has been forced to obey English conventions governing plurality. Either is correct, but “Tori” is more aesthetically pleasing.
No, Torus is a *English word. *We stole it fair and square. They were just lying there in that dark alley and loose vocabulary was coming out of their pockets, what else could we do.
Thus the plural is toruses.
If, indeed, you are speaking Latin, then use tori.
If we did that for every word English has stolen, no one would know what the plural is for anything. Torus is now English. We stole from Latins dead body.
What’s the plural of bacterium? Or locus?
I believe we agree. Like I said I prefer “toruses.” (You even agree with me on your post on page one.) Are people misunderstanding what I’m saying? I said “I prefer foreign words to be pluralized in the target language by the target language’s rules.” So, torus is a “foreign” word English borrowed and my preference is that it should be pluralized in the target language (English) by the target language’s (English’s) rules. Ergo, toruses.
Ita! vērō!
As a mathematician (and moreover a topologist), we absolutely use ‘tori’ over ‘toruses’. Google reports more than 100 times as many searches for “maximal tori” as “maximal toruses,” for example.
Huh. It never would have occurred to me that anyone would ever ask for just one of those…
I’ve always used “pierogi” as the singular, and “pierogis” as the plural. Which I now learn is wrong, but it won’t be the first time English has double-pluralized a word.
As for contexts where the singular might be used:
(when making them) “That pierogi didn’t seal up properly.”
(when serving them at the fish fry) “Give that customer an extra pierogi.”
(when finishing up a meal) “Who wants the last pierogi?”