Words (to go with the previous post about Numbers)

[bugshaw]

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? :-)

Comments

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I think it's mainly "buses" in the U.S. too, e.g.: www.sfmuni.com

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

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.

[feorag.livejournal.com]

I think you'll find that a lot of people simply can't be bothered with that "spelling" thing.

[akicif.livejournal.com]

"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)

[intelligentrix.livejournal.com]

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.

[akicif.livejournal.com]

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....

[akicif.livejournal.com]

And the last word is probably here....

[nolley.livejournal.com]

Bus is a contraction of Omnibus so it should be omnibuses -or omnibusi.

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

I could be convinced by that :-)