Topic: Stupid question - answer requested

Hi there,

please lend a non-native speaker a hand: what is the plural of "arquebus"? The word is so archaic that modern dictionaries do not provide any help.

Thanks in advance!

With kind regards
Gregorius21778
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Re: Stupid question - answer requested

"Arquebuses"

Source: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/arquebus

Re: Stupid question - answer requested

Thanks a lot! That was actually very caring of you smile

With kind regards
Gregorius21778
__________________
My blog

Re: Stupid question - answer requested

Hehe, no worries! :-)

Re: Stupid question - answer requested

Shouldn't it be Arquebi?

Re: Stupid question - answer requested

No, it's "arquebuses".

Another source: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/arquebus?s=t

Also, Google nGram can't find any instances of "arquebi" in books published between 1800 and 2000, but it does find "arquebuses".

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?c … es%3B%2Cc0

Last edited by UncaringCosmos (2018-02-28 10:12:35)

Re: Stupid question - answer requested

I'm sceptical of the internet, vs. actual books. And the rules of english are clear:

Octopus - Octopi
Nucleus - Nuclei
Chorus - Chori
Arquebus - Arquebi

Re: Stupid question - answer requested

IIRC, the difference in plural rules is due to some words having Greek etymology (octopus is from Greek) and other words with Latin etymology.

Re: Stupid question - answer requested

Andomedanaea wrote:

I'm sceptical of the internet, vs. actual books. And the rules of english are clear:

Octopus - Octopi
Nucleus - Nuclei
Chorus - Chori
Arquebus - Arquebi

Since English is derived from so many languages, the rules are rarely clear.

Campus - campuses
Virus - viruses
Chorus - choruses
Status - statuses

Re: Stupid question - answer requested

Andomedanaea wrote:

I'm sceptical of the internet, vs. actual books. And the rules of english are clear:

Octopus - Octopi
Nucleus - Nuclei
Chorus - Chori
Arquebus - Arquebi

Take a look at page 158 of Lamentations of the Flame Princess - Player Core Book: Rules & Magic. The plural of "Arquebus" is rendered as "Arquebuses" in the official rulebook.

Re: Stupid question - answer requested

Andomedanaea wrote:

I'm sceptical of the internet, vs. actual books. And the rules of english are clear:

Octopus - Octopi
Nucleus - Nuclei
Chorus - Chori
Arquebus - Arquebi

Octopus-> octopuses. Octopodes is arguably correct, but doesn't really follow the roles of modern English. Octopi is wrong as it doesn't come from Latin.
Nucleus does become nuclei.
Chorus-> choruses. Seriously, nobody says choir, it doesn't flow of the tongue.
Arquebus-> arquebuses. It's not derived from Latin (from German according to a quick search).
Genius-> genii, because it is derived from Latin.

It's like 'i before e', the rule of pluralising 'us' with 'I' only applies to a certain subset of words. The correct way to pluralise ones outside of that set is to place 'es' on the end.

It would honestly be easier if we could her people to make all English plurals end in s, we already use such plurals as 'geniuses' in everyday conversation.