Haven
Super_Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2007
- Messages
- 13,166
For those who pay attention to such things:
How do you decide when to use the Latin plural for Latin words used in English?
I ask because I have not yet found a happy medium ( ) for making decisions about such things in my own writing. Language is constantly evolving, yes, and there are no hard and fast rules here, but I need to find a useful approach and stick with it.
Some of you choose to use fora as the multiple of forum. If you choose to do this, do you always choose to use the Latin (or Greek) plural for Latin (or Greek) words used in English? (Octopodes? Diplomata? Foci?)
I understand that we regularly use the Latin plural for many commonly used words, such as data, media, or hypotheses. What about the words that have not yet garnered regular usage in one form or the other? How do you choose?
While this is unrelated, I imagine anyone reading this thread will enjoy it. I created this for my last button-making frenzy.
ETA: Thank you for sharing!
ETA2: I am not being pedantic! I'm genuinely curious about these things.
How do you decide when to use the Latin plural for Latin words used in English?
I ask because I have not yet found a happy medium ( ) for making decisions about such things in my own writing. Language is constantly evolving, yes, and there are no hard and fast rules here, but I need to find a useful approach and stick with it.
Some of you choose to use fora as the multiple of forum. If you choose to do this, do you always choose to use the Latin (or Greek) plural for Latin (or Greek) words used in English? (Octopodes? Diplomata? Foci?)
I understand that we regularly use the Latin plural for many commonly used words, such as data, media, or hypotheses. What about the words that have not yet garnered regular usage in one form or the other? How do you choose?
While this is unrelated, I imagine anyone reading this thread will enjoy it. I created this for my last button-making frenzy.
ETA: Thank you for sharing!
ETA2: I am not being pedantic! I'm genuinely curious about these things.