Plural of Darius, Darii?

Touch My Box · 2017-01-12T10:30:42.644Z

Catc+us = Cact+i So Dari+us = Dari+i

Touch My Box·Jan 12, 2017·1 votes·760 views

Catc+us = Cact+i

Dari+us = Dari+i

10 Comments

This Is Your DadJan 12, 20172 votes

The plural form of Darius is "Cancer" because just one is enough.

DynikusJan 12, 20171 votes

Fun fact, the english plural form of cactus is actually cactuses. Cacti is the latin plural.

Touch My BoxJan 12, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Fun fact, the english plural form of cactus is actually cactuses. Cacti is the latin plural.

Well maybe Darius is Latin?

SquashCannonJan 12, 20171 votes

[{quoted}](name=Its Not Shacko,realm=OCE,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=5AioxEH6,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2017-01-12T11:56:41.286+0000)

Well maybe Darius is Latin?

The name darius has persian origin, not latin origin.

vampirekid13Jan 12, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Fun fact, the english plural form of cactus is actually cactuses. Cacti is the latin plural.

fun fact, cacti is the plural form of cactus in english as well. however cactuses is not incorrect, neither is cactus. all these are plural forms in english, i would say the most correct one is cacti, its also the first one listed in merriam webster, and all other dictionaries you can find. however, the others are not incorrect they are just not used as often.

DynikusJan 13, 20171 votes

Cactuses is the plural of cactus using english pluralization rules. The english word cactus doesn't have latin roots, but comes from the greek kaktos, so it doesn't actually make much sense to use the latin plural for it. The reason cacti is widely used and accepted is the heavy influence of latin on biological nomenclature.

I'm really just splitting hairs here though, cacti, cactus, cactuses, they're all right.

vampirekid13Jan 13, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Cactuses is the plural of cactus using english pluralization rules. The english word cactus doesn't have latin roots, but comes from the greek kaktos, so it doesn't actually make much sense to use the latin plural for it. The reason cacti is widely used and accepted is the heavy influence of latin on biological nomenclature.

I'm really just splitting hairs here though, cacti, cactus, cactuses, they're all right.

accredited dictionaries list all 3 as correct. yes cacti comes from latin, however its english. just like a handful of other words also come from latin but are english words now. thats like me saying kindergarten isnt in english, its in german.

i mean sure kindergarten is a german word, but it doesnt mean it cant also be an english word.

DynikusJan 13, 20171 votes

It's not the same as kindergarten being both a word used in english and in german, because cactus was never a latin word. We got it from Greece. Basically we translated a word into language A from language B, and decided to use the rules from language C for it for no real reason.

A similar example is with octopus. The plural of octopus is octopuses rather than octopi because it's derived from the greek oktopous. We don't use the latin plural for octopus because it wasn't a latin word. With octopus, we translated a word into language A from language B, and used language A's rules for it.

I know all 3 are correct, I'm just saying that cacti technically shouldn't be, even though it is.

vampirekid13Jan 13, 20171 votes

{quoted}

It's not the same as kindergarten being both a word used in english and in german, because cactus was never a latin word. We got it from Greece. Basically we translated a word into language A from language B, and decided to use the rules from language C for it for no real reason.

A similar example is with octopus. The plural of octopus is octopuses rather than octopi because it's derived from the greek oktopous. We don't use the latin plural for octopus because it wasn't a latin word. With octopus, we translated a word into language A from language B, and used language A's rules for it.

I know all 3 are correct, I'm just saying that cacti technically shouldn't be, even though it is.

but its a pretty wide spread rule in english that us endings get i as plurals.

alumnus - alumni bacilus - bacilli stimulus - stimuli terminus - termini focus - foci radius - radii

now these are some pretty odd words ill give you that, but most words that end in us are pretty odd.

DynikusJan 13, 20171 votes

It's not a widespread rule in english, it's a widespread rule in latin. All of those words have latin roots.