Posted by pakman on June 23, 2007, 3:57 pm
Prius, which is Latin for "to go before", is Masculine.
If Prius is used as a proper noun, which I assume it is for the car, then
Prii is the correct plural form.
But, I suspect, Priuses is going to be the popular plural, however
incorrect.
John
> If it feels right, Prius !
Posted by Paul Russell on June 23, 2007, 4:42 pm
pakman wrote:
> Prius, which is Latin for "to go before", is Masculine.
If Prius meant "to go before" then it would be a verb, and verbs don't
have a gender. As it is, Latin verbs don't end in -us or -ius, so I
doubt that it means this (actually I doubt that Prius is even a Latin word).
> If Prius is used as a proper noun, which I assume it is for the car, then
> Prii is the correct plural form.
>
> But, I suspect, Priuses is going to be the popular plural, however
> incorrect.
>
Nope - look in your dictionary - what is the correct plural for genius
(when used in its most common sense) ?
Paul
Posted by Paul Russell on June 23, 2007, 4:53 pm
Paul Russell wrote:
> pakman wrote:
>> Prius, which is Latin for "to go before", is Masculine.
>
> If Prius meant "to go before" then it would be a verb, and verbs don't
> have a gender. As it is, Latin verbs don't end in -us or -ius, so I
> doubt that it means this (actually I doubt that Prius is even a Latin
> word).
>
OK - curiosity got the better of me so I looked it up - /prius/ is a
Latin adjective/adverb meaning "before" or "formerly". The plural would
be /priora/ but it would be nonsensical to use this as the plural of
Prius when Prius is used as an English noun. There is a mention of this
on Wikipedia: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius> .
Paul
Posted by Michelle Steiner on June 23, 2007, 6:11 pm
> Prius, which is Latin for "to go before", is Masculine. If Prius is
> used as a proper noun, which I assume it is for the car, then Prii is
> the correct plural form.
Actually, brand names are adjectives. It's technically "Prius
automobile" "Macintosh computer", "Microsoft Excel software", etc.
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