According to the grammar monster website both radii and radiuses are used in UK and USA. I think once a Latin word is adopted into English it takes on English grammar rules.

And what have you got against my namesake?

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Please feel free to do that

MichaelG.

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P.S. ___ it may be amusing for the forum to consider what collective noun[s] would be appropriate.

Edit: __ this iist currently lacks an entry:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:English_collective_nouns

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 17/09/2023 05:54:07

But on the other hand lets encourage people to send in articles otherwise you won't have content to complain about

Well actually you will as there will be moans about Neil using old articles to bulk out the content.

I'm happy with either and know what is meant, maybe it's because I'm a bit common and never went to a posh school where Latin was a subject

Edited By JasonB on 17/09/2023 07:29:41

Radiusiastions

The article to which this applies, on page 55, uses the form "radii" – so everyone should be satisfied.

John

Latin O level pass grade B

added smiley – don't know what it means, but intended to imply mischievousnesses.

Edited By John Hinkley on 17/09/2023 09:57:52

And there I was thinking the plural of radius was rads, as distinct from RADS.

Regards

Gray,

That's not really the case, Martin; the people who insisted on it were really just linguistic prescriptivists – a species that is clearly very much alive and kicking today, on this forum and elsewhere.

In any case, any classical scholar worth his or her salt would know that the periphrastic tenses of the infinitive in Latin, of which there are several, consist of two parts that are regularly split by classical Latin writers, as they are by Latin writers of all periods. Other tenses of the infinitive in Latin are just one word, which you can't split whether you want to or not. How we form and use the infinitive in English is completely different. It's not unreasonable to say English doesn't even have an infinitive as such.

The only sane viewpoint really is to say that how one language happens to work is no basis for saying how another language should work.

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 17/09/2023 10:41:48:

You got the Greek almost right, Dave: the accent is in the right place but you should have used a circumflex, not an acute.

I personally know several people, Jason, in different parts of the world who didn't go to a posh school or study Latin there, but who have managed to become highly accomplished Latinists. They are autodidacts, essentially.

I suspect you are an autodidact too in large part when it comes to engineering and IT-related matters.

Chris

Your favourite search engine should reveal consistent definitions from several respected dictionaries

MichaelG.

Sortation isn't quite the same as 'sort', at least in the technical sense. It means a mechanised sort process or processes. I don't know if the word hales from the US or not but appending .ation to verbs is common in British English. Visit and visitation etc.

Engineers can't complain about others abusing the English language. Turning, thread, mill, and lathe, were all jargon in their day. Lay folk often pinch technical terms too: I have a cast-iron case and will blow a gasket if anyone disagrees!

Apparently some Americans are offended by Britishisms catching on in the US. What a bunch of muppets!

Dave

You learn something new every day, I had never heard of 'verbed' either!