Quote:
Originally Posted by afv011
Nexus (nexii?) devices
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The plural of
nexus is
nexuses in both British and American English.
The phrase
Nexus devices is correct, since the number of devices requires the plural form but the kind of devices does not.
If you were referring to a number of different devices using the type of model alone as a metonym, you'd refer to them as
Nexuses. If you wished to coin a sort of term of venery for the devices (as if your gadgets were critters), you might say
a coruscation of Nexuses.
If they were all the same kind of device, the number alone would be plural:
a quiver of Nexus 4s.
In the writings of philosopher/mathematician Alfred Whitehead, the plural form of
nexus is indicated only by a circumflex in place of the
u (
i.e.,
nexûs), but I've yet to see that form appear anywhere else. Perhaps you'd find it in philosophy which incorporates his ideas (or in close critical and historical writing about it).
Because his work was interdisciplinary, Whitehead was concerned with creating a metaphysics (philosophy) of patterns (mathematics), hence his specific use of terms and even characters.
His use of
nexus refers to a particular kind of interrelation between what he calls
actual entities, or real events. We're unlikely to connect that to Google except in a metaphysical poem about smartphones or simply to make other people scratch their heads.
Long ago, in an anthology of philosophy which included excerpts from Whitehead, I was startled to find what had to have been a misprint: the plural use of the phrase
they are nexus -- not to suggest a group of people's identification with a single nexus (or that they've "become" one metaphorically) but rather to indicate that a number of things
are nexuses.
And now back to our regular feature.