Viruses

[Sean Edwards]

Dear All,

I took lunchtime (European time) to consult a friendly classics
scholar, Owen LeBlanc, and showed him extracts of the TAXACOM
discussion. I paste a (somewhat edited) copy of his responses below:

> According to Cassell's Latin Dictionary, "virus" means "slime,
> slimy liquid, poison" and the plural is "viri". But the English
> plural, following Webster's, is "viruses".

This is mostly correct.  The Latin word 'virus' does mean 'slime',
and the English plural is 'viruses'.  The Latin word does not,
strictly speaking, have a plural, at least not attested (in Lewis and
Short), since it is a word of material (like 'milk' or 'cloth' or
'dirt' in their original senses in English).  You can have a cup of
slime, but you can't have two slimes, if you follow me.  The word
'virus' in Latin is masculine and 4th declension, and if it had a
plural, it would be 'virus'.  The word 'viri' is a Latin plural, but
it comes from the noun 'vir', which means 'man', not from 'virus'.

> Virus, vira [Subj. line]
> A substantive of the second declension, neuter gender.

The form 'vira' does not exist.  'Virus' is not a second declension
noun, nor is it neuter.  Second declension neuters end in -um (like
'museum', 'datum', and 'memorandum') and have plurals in -a. There
are some third declension neuters in -us with plurals in -a (like
'ius, iura'), but 'virus' is not one of them.

> I am assured that the plural of virus is virus (4th declension or
> something). Can anybody confirm this please?

Yes, with the caution that the plural does not actually exist in
Latin.

> I dimly do recall that in Latin there are several classes of word
> ending in -us. Apparently the class "virus" belongs to those that
> have its plural ending in -i, if your findings are correct. But
> maybe Sean wanted to allude to another class of Latin nouns ending
> in -us, where the plural is formed in a different manner. I am not
> so quite sure about it, but maybe "cornus" (horn) could be such a
> noun. Ah, such a long time ago, those Latin lessons....

Yes, 'cornus' is a fourth declension noun.

Many thanks to owen.leblanc at mcc.ac.uk

Sean

Sean R. Edwards BSc PhD,
Keeper of Botany,
The Manchester Museum, Manchester University, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
'Phone: +44 (0)161-275-2671/2; fax: +44 (0)161-275-2676
Email: sean.edwards at man.ac.uk
Website: http://www.man.ac.uk/museum/