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Take, for example, 'ignoramuses' instead of 'ignoramae', or 'cacti' over 'cactuses'?

In which cases does the plural end in 'es' instead of 'ae'? Can it be either one for any given case? Why?

tchrist
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    This is a knotty subject. This sort of thing happens in words taken from Latin or Greek: in an earlier age, when anybody who was well enough educated to know these words also knew what the Latin or Greek plural was. Today, we're left with a few preserved forms. Some people like to show off their learning by using Latin plurals in English: sometimes they don't know enough Latin to know what the correct Latin plural is (for example, the words status, prospectus, octopus, and corpus do not form their plurals in Latin by changing -us to -i, but some people use such forms in English. ... – Colin Fine Apr 17 '16 at 21:50
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    ...(continued) My advice is to use a Latin or Greek plural only if you're sure you've seen it used, and otherwise just treat it as an English word. Except for some quite common examples like "cacti", most people won't be bothered. – Colin Fine Apr 17 '16 at 21:51
  • When it's not Latin... Usually. – Dog Lover Apr 17 '16 at 22:05
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    @ColinFine The OED does list octopi as one of three possible plurals of octopus. Plural octopuses, octopi, (rare) octopodes Brit. Also prospecti. – WS2 Apr 17 '16 at 22:17
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    @ColinFine: The problem is that "octopus" is not even a word in Classical Latin, so there is no precedent there. It was invented as part of modern Scientific Latin (apparently by Linnaeus). There's a good overview here: http://english.stackexchange.com/a/138236/77227 – herisson Apr 17 '16 at 22:21
  • But what is the singular of agenda? – WS2 Apr 17 '16 at 22:27
  • At this point in their education my children, and now grandchildren, not only knew about cacti, and hippopotami, but also the plural of wotaclotamus! – WS2 Apr 17 '16 at 22:31
  • @WS2 Agenda is singular. It's a list of things to be done. – deadrat Apr 18 '16 at 00:22
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    The plural of ignoramus is ignoramuses. The singular is not a Latin noun form, so don't inflect it for number. – deadrat Apr 18 '16 at 00:25
  • @deadrat The word has multiple senses, in two of which (4 & 5) it is mostly now regarded as singular (OED). – WS2 Apr 18 '16 at 06:38
  • @WS2 One of them obsolete, according to the OED, which notes that while agendum exists in Latin, it's not used in English. Do you think the word has been used in a plural sense since the OED's example from 1860? – deadrat Apr 18 '16 at 07:05
  • @deadrat I might indeed refer to a single item on an agenda as an agendum. In fact now we have discussed it I almost certainly will. Next committee meeting I attend, I shall certainly use agendum. Its existence, together with agenda is also ample justification for using referenda rather than the dreadful referendums, which some elements of the press are insisting upon. On 23 June we shall have the second of two referenda in our history on British membership of the EU. If our language does not include a connection to Latin, it is nothing. – WS2 Apr 18 '16 at 09:44
  • But @WS2, the Latin gerund referendum does not have a plural. So referenda must be a gerundive, and mean "things to be referred", not "acts of referral". – Colin Fine Apr 18 '16 at 15:36
  • @ColinFine so what is a single act of referral? And what are two or more acts of referral? – WS2 Apr 18 '16 at 16:29
  • @ColinFine You may be interested in this extract from the OED under referendum. The plural forms referendums and referenda are both found; in the early 21st cent. usage...evenly divided... The form referenda is by analogy with memoranda, agenda, etc., and more generally with plurals in -a of Latin-derived words with singular in -um. This form is sometimes deprecated in usage guides, etc., on the grounds that a Latin plural gerundive referenda, meaning ‘things to be referred’, would necessarily connote a plurality of issues, but this view is unlikely to affect actual usage. – WS2 Apr 18 '16 at 18:50
  • @WS2: Of course! We're arguing about Latin in these comments, not about English. People will carry on saying octopi and referenda whatever I say, and I will carry on saying octopuses and referendums whatever they say. – Colin Fine Apr 18 '16 at 22:06
  • @ColinFine One could argue that the English referendum actually comes from the French référendum, where the plural is ..da. (this is mentioned as an aside in the OED). – WS2 Apr 18 '16 at 23:06

1 Answers1

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It is the plural of Latin origin used mainly in formal contexts. In ordinary speech the -es suffix is commonly used:

Catci vs cactuses:

  • Cacti is the Latin plural of cactus, and some writers use it in English. Cactuses is the English plural. Dictionaries list both, and neither is right or wrong. Also, like many names of plants, the uninflected cactus is sometimes treated as plural.

  • The prevalence of the Latin cacti can be attributed to the influence of Latin on biological nomenclature.

  • These Latin plurals are not considered out of place in botany and other scientific fields, and some make their way into broader usage, but there’s no good reason that the ordinary English speaker should have to abide by the rules of Latin grammar.

  • Cactus is not the only Latin-derived English word ending in –us, and most are conventionally pluralized in the English manner. Fungus, like cactus, often becomes fungi (though funguses is just as good), but this is one of the few exceptions.

  • Most English speakers don’t say ani instead of anuses, apparati instead of apparatuses, campi instead of campuses, octopi instead of octopuses, stati instead of statuses, or viri instead viruses, and there’s no reason cactus should be any didfferent. It’s a matter of preference, though, and cacti is not wrong.

(The Grammarist)

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    And stati and viri are not good Latin anyway. The Latin plural of status is status, and virus has no recorded plural (it was generally uncountable in Latin) but since it was neuter, its plural must end in -a. And as for octopi! – Colin Fine Apr 17 '16 at 21:55
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    Mr Grammarist obviously does not know any Latin and should not be trusted about English either. – fdb Apr 17 '16 at 23:40
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    I would omit the last bullet point, since it mars your post's credibility. In addition to what Colin Fine has said, the plural of apparatus is apparatus both in Latin and in English (I have never encountered apparatuses, although my spell-checker approves it), and the only correct Classical plural of octopus is octopodes, not octopi. – Anonym Apr 18 '16 at 01:45
  • @fdb - I don't think the source is unreliable and the Latin exemples are made on a colloquial basis, that is , not knowing the exact plural form in Latin people would probably guess at it. –  Apr 18 '16 at 07:32
  • If it's a matter of preference I choose to use censi, instead of censuses and locuses, instead of loci! X P – Albert F D Jan 15 '24 at 03:29