Archaea, viri and plurals

[B. J. Tindall]

Ken Kinman wrote:

"Then there is the taxon "Archaea"."

This is a fun word. Yes there is potential confusion with geological time
and there is also a genus of extinct giant turtles with a similar name
(Archaenon I think). My old boss once pointed out that if people working
with bacteria are bacteriologists, then people working with Archaea are
also archaeologists!! The problem is that the word has Greek origins, but
in order for it to become the name of a taxonomic rank it becomes latinised
- just as "prokaryon" becomes "Prokaryotae". I often see "archaeon", but
this based on the assumption that "Archaea" must remain Greek.

As for virus - the stem can be also found in "virulent" and I think the
original term for this group of biological entities was "virion" - one
would need to ask a virologist. "-virus" was often used as the ending for
the names of genera and eventually may have entered into common usage.
However, I have only ever seen "virus - viruses" and never "viri".

As for creating plurals from the names of genera in bacteria that is linked
to another problem. In zoology one has the genus Equus (= horse) and Rana
(= frog), so there is no need to create trivial names. However, terms such
as "bacillus = rod", "staphylococcus = spherical cells aggregated like a
bunch of grapes" and "pseudomonad = aerobic, gram-negative, motile rod"
have trivial usage and also use as the names of genera Bacillus,
Staphylococcus, and Pseudomonas. While I would accept "staphylococci" in a
trivial descriptive sense I would not accept the term "Staphylococci", but
rather "members of the genus Staphylococcus".

Still I suppose we should be prepared for "sheeps", "deers", "cattles"
"multimediums", "plectrums", "phytoplanktons",  etc.

Bestes wisheses to all you personses
Brian Tindall


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