Fowler on latin plurals

Martin Hough mothman at vossnet.co.uk
Mon Oct 26 03:17:53 EST 1998


Further fuel for the fire comes from what many still regard as a Bible of
correct English, Fowler's Modern English Usage. He says:

"No rule can be given for preferring or avoiding the Latin form.Some words
invariably use it: nobody says specieses,  thesises or basises instead of
the Latin Species,  Theses and Bases. Others nearly always use the Latin
form , but occasionally the English; baccilluses, lacunas and genuses are
used at least by anti-Latin fanatics instead of bacilli, lacunae and genera.
More often the Latin and English are on fairly equal terms , context or
individual taste deciding for one or the other : formulae, indexes,
narcissuses, miasmas, nimbuses and vortexes, are fitter for popular writing,
while scientific treatises tend to  formulae, indices, miasmae, narcissi,
nimbi and vortices. Sometimes the two forms are used for real
differentiation, such as when genii become spirits, and geniuses men. All
that can safely be said is that there is a tendency to abandon the Latin
plurals and that, when one is really in doubt which to use, the English form
should be given the preference."

And that, I  think, is about the clearest guidance we will ever get!

--
Martin Hough
Uxbridge, UK
mothman at vossnet.co.uk



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