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first meaning given for this word, a slimy liquid, slime, in the most widely used Latin-English dictionaries is inaccurate; the error has been corrected in the more recent Oxford Latin
Dictionary.) Nouns denoting entities that are countable pluralize (book, books); nouns denoting noncountable entities do not (except under special circumstances) pluralize (air, mood, valor). The term virus in antiquity appears to have belonged to the latter category, hence the nonexistence of plural forms.
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The Latin form of virus never had a plural form: In antiquity the word virus had not yet acquired, of course, its current scientific meaning; rather it denoted something like toxicity, venom, a poisonous, deleterious, or unpleasant agent or principle, or poison in the abstract or general sense. (The
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is generally regarded to be a neuter of the second declension, but the word is so rare that there are no recorded plurals. Possibilities include "vira" (in analog with 2nd declension) and "virus" (in analog with 4th declension masculine, although as a neuter noun the plural of virus in the 4th
235:: the Synchronic study of a language's form at a given moment, is the core of the discipline of linguistics as opposed to diachronic linguistics. Synchronic linguistics acknowledges the "viri" form as well as the historical "viruses" form.
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writers with reference to computer viruses. Most computer professionals unaffiliated with the warez, cracker, and virus writing scenes use the "viruses" form instead of the "virii" form.
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being used in Latin in a plural form, and it is unclear how a plural might have been formed had the word acquired a meaning requiring a plural form. Possibilities include
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aspects of the words "viri" and "virii", as well as arguments for and against their acceptability as an alternative to "viruses" in the
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The "viri" form is used less often. It is sometimes used by professionals, and can refer to both biological and computer viruses.
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The forms "viri" and "virii" are also used as a plural, although (much) less frequently. This article discusses the origins and
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To make matters worse, it has been suggested that due to the Latin form of the word, the study of viruses should not be
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is not the correct plural. The "ii" ending only occurs in the plural of words ending in "ius". For instance, take
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There is some debate about what the rules of Latin grammar might imply about the formation of a plural. In Latin
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is "viruses". This form of the plural is correct, and used most frequently, both when referring to a
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Are either of "viri" or "virii" acceptable alternatives to "viruses" in the
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Also, the word 'viri' (or 'virii') does not appear in on-line
English language dictionaries.
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The plural "virii" is frequently perceived to be founded on a misunderstanding of
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Arguments pro and contra the acceptability of "viri" and "virii"
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is used only for masculine nouns, not neuter ones such as
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to this revision, which may differ significantly from the
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The term is today an
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The same is true of specialized dictionaries, e.g.:
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In
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171:crackers
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