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Words (to go with the previous post about Numbers)

posted by [personal profile] bugshaw at 11:50pm on 07/08/2007
I have always had trouble remembering what the plural of "bus" is, so for my last post I looked it up in the dictionary. It's "fleet" Predominantly "buses" in the UK, "busses" in the US. That ought to have made its way into long-term memory now.

While I had the dictionary out, I thought I'd check on a pair of words that I often get confused: solipsism and solecism. Could it be any more ironic that "solecism" means "a mistake of grammar or idiom; a blunder in the manner of speaking..."

Oh, I have a high life, counting purported buses and looking things up in dictionaries. Can I stand the excitement or will I have to go and have a bit of a lie-down? :-)
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There are 9 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
 

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] vgqn.livejournal.com at 11:11pm on 07/08/2007
Hmm, I think it's mainly "buses" in the U.S. too, e.g.: www.sfmuni.com
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] bugshaw.livejournal.com at 11:19pm on 07/08/2007
I see - and Google says: 5.7m hits for "busses"; 14.7m hits for "buses".

I realise I may have this word-block because the founder of my school (oh, so posh!) was Frances Mary Buss, so I've seen the double-s in a lot of places.
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ext_52412: (Default)

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] feorag.livejournal.com at 01:30am on 08/08/2007
I think you'll find that a lot of people simply can't be bothered with that "spelling" thing.
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ext_16733: (Default)

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] akicif.livejournal.com at 08:00am on 08/08/2007
"busses" is also plural for "buss" in the kissing sense (which I'm sure has no relation to Miss Buss: if only 'cos I've never come across 'beale' in a similar context)
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ext_39302: Painting of Flaming June by Frederick Lord Leighton (Evil Child)

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] intelligentrix.livejournal.com at 12:55am on 08/08/2007
I contend that, following the latin singular=us, plural=i form, the correct plural of bus is bi.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
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ext_16733: (Travelling)

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] akicif.livejournal.com at 08:06am on 08/08/2007
Or 'bodes', or 'boi' (by analogy with 'octopus' - Greek). Or 'bus' (by analogy with 'manus' - Latin 4th declension).

Of course, 'bus is already ablative plural....
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ext_16733: (Travelling)

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] akicif.livejournal.com at 08:14am on 08/08/2007
And the last word is probably here....
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] nolley.livejournal.com at 10:15pm on 08/08/2007
Bus is a contraction of Omnibus so it should be omnibuses -or omnibusi.
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] bugshaw.livejournal.com at 04:13am on 09/08/2007
I could be convinced by that :-)
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