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by Erin Albrecht on February 10th, 2006

Erin Albrecht

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Why do some people pluralize the word virus as "virii"?

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  • by Erin Albrecht on February 10th, 2006

    Erin Albrecht

    From http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/plural-of-virus.html:

    "Those confused souls who write virii are tacitly positing the existence of the non-word virius, and declining it as though it were like filius. It's true that l/r are both linguals that sometimes get interchanged, and that f/v are just a change in voicing, but that's just reaching. Virii is still completely silly, so don't do that; otherwise, everyone will know you're just a blathering script kiddie."

    Virii, while it may look "educated" or "fancy," is completely wrong. The full Latin explanation can be found at the aforementioned website.

    Comments

    • your link is not working.

      Grandma Roses - my avatar is my real dog

      by Grandma Roses - my avatar is my real dog on August 30th, 2008

    • Well it is over 2 years old...not too surprising given the domain name.

      lastwraith

      by lastwraith on August 30th, 2008

    • Try this one:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plural_of_virus

      lastwraith

      by lastwraith on August 30th, 2008

    • Actually, the other link is fine, they just added a colon at the end for some odd reason...
      http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/plural-of-virus.html

      lastwraith

      by lastwraith on August 30th, 2008

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