Plurals of Latin/Greek words
(Usage Disputes)Not all Latin words ending in "-us" had plurals in "-i". "Apparatus", "cantus", "coitus", "hiatus", "impetus", "Jesus", "lapsus linguae", "nexus", "plexus", "prospectus", "sinus", and "status" were 4th declension in Latin, and had plurals in "-us" with "genus", and "opus" were 3rd declension, with plurals "corpora", "genera", and "opera". "Virus" is not attested in the plural in Latin, and is of a rare form (2nd declension neuter in -us) that makes it debatable what the Latin plural would have been; the only plural in English is "viruses". "Omnibus" and "rebus" were not nominative nouns in Latin. "Ignoramus" was not a noun in Latin. Not all classical words ending in "-a" had plurals in "-ae". "Anathema", "aroma", "bema", "carcinoma", "charisma", "diploma", "dogma", "drama", "edema", "enema", "enigma", "lemma", "lymphoma", "magma", "melisma", "miasma", "sarcoma", "schema", "soma", "stigma", "stoma", and "trauma" are from Greek, where they had plurals in "-ata". "Quota" was not a noun in Latin. (It comes from the Latin expression _quota pars_, where _quota_ is the feminine form of an interrogative pronoun meaning "what number". In *that* use, it did have plural _quotae_, but in English the only plural is "quotas".) Not all classical-sounding words ending in "-um" have plurals in "-a". "Factotum", "nostrum", "quorum", and "variorum" were not nouns in Latin. (_Totus_ = "everything" and _noster_ = "our" were conjugated like nouns in Latin; but "factotum" comes from _fac totum_ = "do everything", and "nostrum" comes from _nostrum remedium_ = "our remedy".) "Conundrum", "panjandrum", "tantrum", and "vellum" are not Latin words. If in doubt, consult a dictionary (or use the English plural in "-s" or "-es"). One plural that you *will* find in U.S. dictionaries, "octopi", raises the ire of purists (the Greek plural is "octopodes"). The classical-style plurals of "penis" and "clitoris" are "penes" /'pi:ni:z/ and "clitorides" /klI'tOrIdi:z/. The Latin plural of "curriculum vitae" is "curricula vitae". Some people who know a little Latin think it should be "curricula vitarum" (since _vitae_ means "of a life" and _vitarum_ means "of lives"); but to an ancient Roman, "curricula vitarum" would suggest that each document described more than one life. This is a feature of the Latin genitive of content, which differs in this regard from the more common Latin genitive of possession.
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