Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
To explain: Bob was making a parallel with the word "octopus", which many people mistakenly think is a Latin word and form the false plural "octopi" (hence his "about 8 people" comment). Octopus is actually Greek, not Latin, and if you prefer to use a Greek plural, rather than the much more straightforward English "octopuses", that plural would be "octopodes" - pronounced "oc-TOP-ud-eez". Although this may be grammatically correct, it has the significant disadvantage that almost nobody would have a clue what you mean, hence it's better to stick to "octopuses" - and, yes, "omnibuses"  .
Although "omnibus" is indeed Latin, its plural is not "omnibi" because the Latin word "omnibus" is an adverb (meaning "for all"), not a noun, and adverbs don't have plurals. |
Harry, Harry, Harry. This is English we're talking about. And in English, we can do anything we want. We can have Octopi. Or Optopodes. Or Octopuses. Or Omnibuses. Or Omnibi. Or anything we want to do with it. It's called normalcy.
Very simply, in English there are a plethora of ways to pluralise a word.
And we really don't care where the word came from. To care where a word came from is a racist and potentially sexist act. And we're trying not to commit such heinous acts anymore.