# You're annoying me with your jokey faux Latinate plurals **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 7, 2010, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-annoying-me-with-your-jokey-faux-latinate-plurals/545840 "2010-07-07T12:42:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-annoying-me-with-your-jokey-faux-latinate-plurals/545840/21 "2010-07-07T18:10:35Z")
That’s when they’ll no longer be jokey. You can bring that usage lecture when they’re established as non-joke usage… ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-annoying-me-with-your-jokey-faux-latinate-plurals/545840/22 "2010-07-07T18:17:04Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Sort of on the same note _alumni_ is the plural, people. You are not “an alumni”. Some of us in the biz get around this by calling alumni/ae “alums”, which sounds awful. Using the right terminology doesn’t seem to help, though. Every time I’ve used “alumnae” to refer to female graduates I’ve gotten weird looks. At least “alum” is better than the term my old employer Oxford uses to refer to its graduates: “Old Member”. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-annoying-me-with-your-jokey-faux-latinate-plurals/545840/23 "2010-07-07T18:17:04Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > And I just learned something because of Raventhief – “Virus” doesn’t have a separate plural form in Latin, because it’s a mass noun. The Latin _virus_ also doesn’t mean virus, so that’s kind of a meaningless point. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-annoying-me-with-your-jokey-faux-latinate-plurals/545840/24 "2010-07-07T18:21:22Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > The Latin _virus_ also doesn’t mean virus, so that’s kind of a meaningless point. It’s a meaningless point only if you think that it was part of an argument. It was in fact merely interesting trivia. I know that _viruses_ is correct in English and I wondered about its Latin form, only to discover there was none. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-annoying-me-with-your-jokey-faux-latinate-plurals/545840/25 "2010-07-07T18:48:18Z")
I think that should be buttices. Yes I do get that word running around in my head but I’m pretty sure I’ve never said it out loud so don’t glare at me. At least not about that one - “condominia” are different. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-annoying-me-with-your-jokey-faux-latinate-plurals/545840/26 "2010-07-07T18:55:35Z")
Stop being such _sourpodes_ ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-annoying-me-with-your-jokey-faux-latinate-plurals/545840/27 "2010-07-07T19:07:55Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > I know that _viruses_ is correct in English and I wondered about its Latin form, only to discover there was none. Right, but what I’m saying is that it’s only a mass noun in Latin because it means something totally different: poison. There isn’t a Latin equivalent of virus. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-annoying-me-with-your-jokey-faux-latinate-plurals/545840/28 "2010-07-07T19:21:58Z")
So why didn’t you put it this way: "As an aside, in Latin, _virus_ means ‘poison.’ "? Because the way you’re expressing yourself, it feels like you’re trying to argue with me. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-annoying-me-with-your-jokey-faux-latinate-plurals/545840/29 "2010-07-07T19:25:12Z")
Because I would never, ever, ever use the phrase “as an aside”. I consider it a crime against the English language. Really. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-annoying-me-with-your-jokey-faux-latinate-plurals/545840/30 "2010-07-08T04:34:03Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > And it’s exactly as hilarious as “Priscilla and the Thirteen Dancing Elvises,” which is the actual plural. Don’t be ridiculous. That has absolutely no panache. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-annoying-me-with-your-jokey-faux-latinate-plurals/545840/31 "2010-07-08T05:07:57Z")
“Bartender, give me a martinus.” ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-annoying-me-with-your-jokey-faux-latinate-plurals/545840/32 "2010-07-08T05:14:57Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > “Bartender, give me a martinus.” I’ll have two martini, too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-annoying-me-with-your-jokey-faux-latinate-plurals/545840.md?page=1)