Is Plural of Prius Prii? Wife & I have 2 Prius; now my In-laws have 1

IMNVHO the plural of Prius is Priuses.

Paul

Yes, seriously. A Latin word ending in -ius is properly pluralized as

-ii. For example, the plural of radius is radii.* Prius is a made-up name, not a Latin word, so standard pluralization applies, hence the plural is Priuses. It does sound odd, though.

*Many dictionaries accept "radiuses" as an alternative plural form.

I like the solution somebody else came up with: Prius cars.

Prius cars are the Priust !

Since we're both right about this I guess it makes us a pair of geniuses.

Paul

My original response seems to have been eaten by gremlins... I hope I find all of my source material again...

Toyota officials have said that Prius is used singular or plural, similar to the like of sheep or fish or deer.

The Latin root of "prius" is "prior," which is a 3rd declension comparitive adjective. "Prius" is the 3rd declension neuter nomitive/ accusitive form, so the plural of "prius" is either "priora" (neuter) or "priores" (m/f). Latin 3rd declension adjectives in the nominative/ accusitive form (such as "prius") can also be a comparitive adverb, which have no plural. However, many people are much more used to the usual pluralization of

2nd declension nouns, where -us is changed to -i. See: cactus ->

cacti, fungus -> fungi. Hence, the common usage of the plural of Prius to be "Prii." But, not every word follows in that fashion... For example, the correct plural of octopus is octopuses, although some still like to use octopi. (Same goes for hippopotamus ->

hippopotamuses (and not hippopotami).)

(BTW: for Latin 4th declension nouns ending in -us, their plual isalso -us (long u)...) Do note that "prius" is not a verb, as Toyota claims ("to go before"), and actually translates to before, formerly... (Toyota FAQ site) and search for "modelnames")

Following regular English pluralization rules, the plural of "Prius" would be "Priuses."

Some also believe that "Prius" is a proper name/trademark, and so should be used as an adjective. One Prius car, two Prius cars, one Prius tire, four Prius tires. Like SPAM luncheon meat or LEGO blocks or Scotch cellophane tape.

Whatever plural form you choose, we can usually figure out what you mean. Everyone seems to have their favorite version...

Were you there when I got flamed by the pompous ignoramuses* who seem to think that "Unix" is Latin and that the plural ought to be "Unices!?"

You know these folks are pompous asses because they choose Latin (though they know nothing of it,) thinking it makes them appear learned. One wonders why they don't choose one of the other languages in which Prius is not a word (that could be any language.) Why not Hebrew? Is it masculine "priusim" or feminine "priusot?" (Sorry, no majuscules in Hebrew.) But forget about Thai and a bunch of other Asian languages that have /no/ plurals.

Davoud

Owner of a Prius, fan of Prius automobiles.

• That's not "ignorami" because "ignoramus" is not a Latin noun; it's a Latin verb.

It sounds familiar. I always thought the plural was "flavors of Unix". ;-)

A friend of mine pointed out why our legal and medical professions (at least in the USA) rely on Latin. It's precisely because it *is* a dead language; the meanings don't change. When we say somebody was "in a funk" it means a very different thing today (unhappy) than it did a few centuries ago (terrified.) I'm old enough to remember when it was clear that something marked "inflammable" should be kept from sources of ignition, when something that was "gnarly" had a specific appearance and when "gay" meant something else altogether. (Actually, I remember when it was transitioning and for a year or so meant pan-sexual.)

I suspect if we could bring an ancient Roman here in a time machine and ask him (in Latin, of course!) what the plural of Prius is, he would have a puzzled look.

Mike

Well, that's three of us who are on both newsgroups.

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

Is it just my imagination, or is the battle over made-up words often more intense than the one over actual, real words of legitimate origin? Maybe we should be glad we aren't trying to determine the plural of Leganza, Xterra or Vue.

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).

Nope - look in your dictionary - what is the correct plural for genius (when used in its most common sense) ?

Paul

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: .

Paul

Actually, brand names are adjectives. It's technically "Prius automobile" "Macintosh computer", "Microsoft Excel software", etc.

In case anyone's wondering, Michelle is referring to comp.sys.mac.system.

Say, Michelle, Mark Conrad once claimed to drive a Prius, but knowing him, he's probably found an alternate way to use it that makes sense only to him while severely reducing his mileage.

"Prius" is a Latin word. However, the definition that Toyota supplies is not correct.

Yes, because the plural would depend on what the gender of the noun that the adjective "prius" is modifying.

ha scritto nel messaggio news: snipped-for-privacy@c77g2000hse.googlegroups.com...

Maybe this may help: in Italian nobody would dream of using the plural of Prius so the subject of this thread: "Wife & I have 2 Prius" in Italian is "Io e mia moglie abbiamo 2 Prius" and, you know, Italian comes from Latin... Prius is perceived as Latin adverb (earlier, before, ahead) or, most probably, a proper name with no plural usage. I have 2 Apples or 2 Apple or 2 Apple computers?

Diako