MS Paint Adventures 4: 13

[Derjuin]

To annoy people like you.

Edit: Also because 'lususes', while the correct pluralization for a generic English word, is incredibly awkward.

According to a quick google search, the plural for "lusus naturae" (which is what I assume Hussie used to derive the name of homestuck's lusus) is "lusus naturae", so perhaps the plural is simply "lusus".

[Gez]

Regular English plural lususes.
Accurate Latin plural lusus. (Yep, invariant.)
Completely wrong "I think I know how to be a pedant" plural lusii.

The short and sweet is that -ii is never a plural for -us. It would be, at best, a plural for -ius. You can have a plural in -i (single i) for a word in -us, such as alumnus -> alumni. Not alumnii.

There's about the same debate for the plural of virus. Some people want to write virii even though it's entirely wrong.

By the way, the plural of octopus? It's octopodes. And the plural of corpus? It's corpora. (Octopuses is generally preferred, but curiously corpuses isn't used. Probably because the latter is an academic term and therefore used by the kind of people who aren't afraid to check stuff up in a book before writing. But please don't talk about octopii or corpii.)

Finally, omnibus? Not omnibi, not omnibodes, not omnibora, certainly not omnibii, you have no choice but omnibuses.

So next time you want to pluralize a word in -us, don't put an -ii on it. It's always wrong. If you want to play it safe without consulting a dictionary, use -uses.

[Fawkes]

What a bunch of grammar nazii.

Also, Gez, you posted twice. That's too many postii.

[Claudius Maximus]

Dang it Fawkes, my dictionary just exploded.

Accurate Latin plural lusus. (Yep, invariant.)

It's not invariant, it just has the same form in those two case/number combinations. It can have endings like -ui, -um, and -ibus too.

[Draconi Redfir]

How about we just spell it lusi? same sound, believe i actually started writing it that way until i saw other people using lusii to which i then switched.

it won't be correct true, but we are talking about a group of organisms of vastly different species all inherently milk-white and holding the ability to raise a single member of an entirely different species without any kind of communication all on a fictional alien planet. do we REALLY need to be correct when everything about them is fictional?

Also see; Pegasus = Pegasi not Pegasuses, Colossus = Colossi not Colossuses, Cerberus = Cerberus not Cerberuses (Ok this one not too sure of)

How about this, new grammar rule; any fictional word/creature which ends in "us" may be used with a single "i" as a plural.

[Lix Lorn]

So next time you want to pluralize a word in -us, don't put an -ii on it. It's always wrong. If you want to play it safe without consulting a dictionary, use -uses.

Don't care. Lusii sounds nice. Imagine Sollux is typing my posts if you like.

What a bunch of grammar nazii.

Also, Gez, you posted twice. That's too many postii.

Win. xD

[Capt. Ido Nos]

I'm not going to lii, I use the double ii at every opportunity, so there's that.

Ahhh, I can't wait for Strider to make an appearance!

[Gez]

Lusii wouldn't sound like lusi since there's one more vowel. It would be like loo zee yee.

And lusus is perfectly acceptable plural.

And yeah, there are a few examples of Latin words in -us that do pluralize in -i. I think I have already given examples showing that it's not a general rule. (And at least two of your examples are proper nouns originally and therefore were not meant to be pluralized.)

New example: Venus. Not Veni. Chorus: not chori. Callus: no calli.

[Draconi Redfir]

Luss-EYE, pretty easy to pronounce and pretty sure it's only one syllable (wich is what i am assuming you meant)


i for one am not a fan words in which the plural as the same as the single, it's just confusing at times. saying "our lusus" for example without any context could mean more then one troll shares a lusus or the trolls are referring to multiple lusi, whereas saying "our lusi" or even "our lusii" makes it much more clear that their is more then one giant white animal thing that may or may not bet trying to eat us.

[Lix Lorn]

Lusii, Loo-sigh. This is what it is to me.

[Fawkes]

Luss-EYE, pretty easy to pronounce and pretty sure it's only one syllable (wich is what i am assuming you meant)

If it's luss-EYE, that should be two syllabii. Or is it syllablii?

[Draconi Redfir]

If it's luss-EYE, that should be two syllabii. Or is it syllablii?

IDEK. if it is two syllables it's barely noticeable due to the word itself being so short.

And if it IS two syllables, it's still better then Lususes wich would be three.

[tyckspoon]

And if it IS two syllables, it's still better then Lususes wich would be three.

And which just sounds like 'lu-hssssss', which is why we've adopted lusi/lusii in the first place.

[Draconi Redfir]

i always figured it would sound like Lu-sus-ezz wich is just plain awkward.

[Gez]

Luss-EYE, pretty easy to pronounce and pretty sure it's only one syllable (wich is what i am assuming you meant)

'i' is a vowel.

Each vowel gets its own syllable in Latin. 'ii' is two syllables, not one.

[LoneStarNorth]

Preeeetty sure they're speaking Alternian, not Latin

[Draconi Redfir]

'i' is a vowel.

Each vowel gets its own syllable in Latin. 'ii' is two syllables, not one.

Then we'll just spell it Lusi, one two two vowels right their bam.

[Claudius Maximus]

Use lusi if you must - I suppose its existence in the comic as a conjectured plural gives it some credence - but I can't see how anyone would even have come up with lusii. It's just not even a real ending in Latin (it occurs since there are stems that end in i, but -ii itself is never appended to a noun).

Pronunciation-wise, an extra i is the difference between loose-eye and loose-ee-ee. And the latter sounds pretty ridiculous to me as an English word.

[Draconi Redfir]

possible the seccond eye was meant to extend the eye sound, such as lus-eyyye or something.


Or more likely one guy spelled it lusii instead of lusi wich made two more people spell it lusii wich made four more people spell it lusii etc etc etc.

[AgentPaper]

Dear troll gog, guys! This is just getting absurd. Everyone knows the plural for lusus is "luflukaragutan". I mean, jegus. This isn't toy rocket science, guys!

[Shadow of the Sun]

And so we have our first example of dialogue by our Aesculapius troll!

I'm very curious about this, but at least it seems that we'll be seeing the beta-verse kids, as well as the alpha-verse ones.

[Gez]

This is the anti-Karkat. Cheerful troll girl who compliments other people and is always happy. Still type in grey, though. A lighter shade of grey. It makes sense if she's associated with the idea of healing, while Karkat is associated to cancer. (All that because ancient Romans thought that cancer was caused by tiny crabs in the body.)

I'll call her Takrak until she is given an official name.

Also, it seems the Derse kids have kept the same name. Lalonde and Strider. Unless they're communicating with Dave and Rose but it doesn't seem so.

[Morganatic]

Damn it, uranianUmbra is really creeping me out, for some reason. I'm getting major Scratch vibes off her. Something about the 'there are gaps in my knowledge, but otherwise I know everything' shtick, the deliberate loquacity, and the cheery, familiar manner.

[TheArsenal]

More of a "Do you like Chocalates little girl?" vibe from me.

[Shadow of the Sun]

There ARE Scratch vibes, but we HAVE seen her computer and her hand, which is definitely a troll-hand, not a Scratch hand.

That said, yes, her upbeatness could be seen as a bit creepy.

[Inyssius Tor]

Also, it seems the Derse kids have kept the same name. Lalonde and Strider.

There's an explanation for this!

The Guardian versions of John and Jane were taken in by the Batterwitch and given the surname Crocker. They both married an Egbert off-screen and produced the same Dad, but only one of them changed last names because only one of them was female.

The Guardian versions of Jake and Jade escaped the sinister clutches of the Batterwitch as young adventurers, choosing new surnames based on personal whim and... well, I can't draw any further parallels than that without knowing what the hell is up with young Jake's collection of incredibly sinister Lord English foreshadowing, but you get the idea.

[Draconi Redfir]

UU: it is the day whereafter the legendary octet of mUtUal progenitoriety will come together and heal a great breach in paradox space.
UU: a day delivered throUgh eighty billion years and foUr distinct Universal instances worth of Unfathomable tUrbUlence.
UU: and while the emerald eye of this storm is fixed in the abyss forever
UU: today yoU are poised to escape its scowl once and for all.
UU: by skaias gUiding light, yoU may leave behind its tUrning arms of bright coloUrs and mayhem, and secUre peace for yoUr cosmic progeny for all dUration.
UU: and if yoU are to meet this departUre with trepidation i woUld Understand! bUt also i woUld ask
UU: is there nothing i can do to ease yoUr mind?

If this isn't heavy forshadowing for something then i don't know what is.

[Morganatic]

More of a "Do you like Chocalates little girl?" vibe from me.

There should be no reason for you to feel uncomfortable with this interaction. Try to think of me as one of your kindly human uncle figures.
In fact, if I were in your presence now, I would offer you candy to prove it.

There ARE Scratch vibes, but we HAVE seen her computer and her hand, which is definitely a troll-hand, not a Scratch hand.

That said, yes, her upbeatness could be seen as a bit creepy.

Yeah, it would seem that there is a troll sitting at that desk, and it's certainly not our Scratch, because he can't lie except to prank ('the place yoU visited was called prospit. it is where i have woken Up every time i have gone to sleep for most of my life.' makes it not able to be Scratch). But even so, the upbeatness combined with the 'I know an awful lot about the future, but can't tell you' attitude is worrying.

uranian Umbra is a very interesting cheerlog name, btw.

[irenicObserver]

How is that bad? Jade had pretty much the same attitude when she and Karkat got into their password system. Even the trolls were talking about a blackout long before Doc Scratch mentioned his dark pockets.

[Derjuin]

There ARE Scratch vibes, but we HAVE seen her computer and her hand, which is definitely a troll-hand, not a Scratch hand.

That said, yes, her upbeatness could be seen as a bit creepy.

She actually threw a lot of "possible pre-scratch Karkat" at me...though I don't know how that's possible, I'm sure that if it DOES turn out to be true, Hussie will find a way to explain it in a way that doesn't make sense at all, but we all agree that it does actually make sense.