In article ,
ess (phil hunt) wrote:

On Wed, 15 Oct 2003 01:30:34 GMT, Chad Irby wrote:
(phil hunt) wrote:

You mean "viruses". There is no such word "virii" in either English
or Latin.

There is *now*. Since the word "virii" has been in common enough use
for more than a few years, it's a word.

Only by those who are deliberately foolish and ignorant.

Or who don't care about silly rules that are only followed by Latin
students with nothing better to do.

English word construction rules? You must be kidding...

It may not be a technically *correct* word, but it's a word nonetheless.

Like bioweapon, nuke, Internet, laser, or many other fun words.

There is nothing ill-formed about any of these words.

When people started using acronyms, the response by grammarians and
other linguists was very similar to the way you're complaining about
"virii." You're just used to the idea.

"Computer" used to mean "a person who does computations." When people
began using it for machines, there was a certain amount of revulsion
among the less-flexible.

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