Nope! I went round and round with this in a Usenet forum with a gentleman who really knows his Latin and a copy of my Cassell's Latin Dictionary. Virus is *not* second-declension masculine, it's second-declension neuter. Yes, I *know* it doesn't end in -um; it's somewhat irregular. It's a really, really, weird noun, fairly rare, and, in fact, has never been seen in the plural form in classic texts. Best guess for a back-formation plural would be "vira".
Slashdot Mirror
Nope! I went round and round with this
in a Usenet forum with a gentleman who
really knows his Latin and a copy of my
Cassell's Latin Dictionary. Virus is
*not* second-declension masculine, it's
second-declension neuter. Yes, I *know*
it doesn't end in -um; it's somewhat
irregular. It's a really, really, weird noun,
fairly rare, and, in fact, has never been seen
in the plural form in classic texts. Best
guess for a back-formation plural would be
"vira".
Chris Mattern
> ACK But God will likely be more interested in your SYNs. Chris Mattern