Exist genuses?

[Sean Edwards]

I'm no Greek scholar, but isn't is Octopodes? The pitfalls of using
foreign plurals when English will do! The current pedantry around
Machester is, or rather are, agenda (and it is remarkable how, once
you know they are plural, like data, they do slip easily into place).
And if you have more than one Canon camera, apparently they are
EOTES.

Surely the answer has to be a good old compromise based on common
usage. Personally, I lean to English plurals if they don't sound too
bad, but try to get foreign ones right if I use them.

This goes back to an old TAXACOM theme of plural taxa (versus a
taxon being a singular concept that can't be pluralised (Gladiolus,
gladioli, Cactus, cacti, Fungus, fungi), which I think was done to
death without resolution.

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sean.edwards at man.ac.uk
Sean R. Edwards BSc PhD, Keeper of Botany, The Manchester Museum,
Manchester University, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

'phone: +44 (0)161-275-2671/2;        fax: +44 (0)161-275-2676
web: http://www.man.ac.uk/museum/
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