UKC

Do you use "cruxes" or "cruces"? Both are acceptable. I found myself using the latter on Saturday, the first time I needed to pluralise it. Is that a bit of an affectation? I like it.

In reply to Blue Straggler: I tend to favour my Latinate neologism, cruxi

btw still waiting for your confessional thread - 'I cried watching Bridge to Terabithia'

In reply to Blue Straggler:
Crucia?

In reply to Blue Straggler:


'ard bits instead of 'ard bit.

We like things simple in Yorkshire.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

We were having a conversation about this a couple of nights ago... I would tend to use the anglicised(?) versions of some Latin words (eg cruxes, forums) as I just feel a bit silly using the 'proper' ones. I still would use criteria, data as plural though. The ones I can't decide on are genius and octopus.

In reply to Nao:

Would you use datum for singular though?
I always feel a bit wrong writing "forums", yet know that some people would think I was bonkers for "fora". I thnk "genii" would be accepted without too much eyebrow raising, but not "octopodes"

In reply to Caralynr:
I tend not to have any singular data so it's not a big problem! Apparently it's acceptable to treat data as singular now.

Slight digression but I've been wondering when all acting types became actors. ('Actor' Lindsay Lohan gets done for driving under the influence... It seems a bit wrong to me.)

In reply to Nao:

I think that the word "crux" in a climbing context is almost a technical term, different from the everyday meaning if only slightly, and therefore should have an anglisized plural "cruxes".

Of course the correct plural of octopus is octopodes, from the Greek, rather than Octopi from the Latin.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Cruces! Wow!


Probably, but hey, affectations can be a lot of fun!

In reply to Nao:

Do you never have a "data point" (strictly a "datum")?

Of course a datum can also be a physical reference or fiducial point.

Murmurings of actresses wanting to be known as "actors" started being heard on a global stage (ba-doom tish) around the late 80s.

In reply to Blue Straggler: not possible, crux is 'the, singular, individual, hardest or deciding point. The moment around which the rest piviots'.
Plural of crux, oop's, of course there are crux on many different climbs so they are cruxes

In reply to tonanf: Ever felt you were missing the point?

Octopodes.

In reply to Nao:


Can understand why people would want to ditch the 'actress' term, given the old actress/prostitute association!

In reply to tonanf:

English words should have English plurals. "Crux" is an English word (from a Latin origin). So it should have the English plural "cruxes", not the Latin plural "cruces".

Interestingly (well, perhaps), the climbing use of the term crux is historically a borrowing from a textual critics' use. A textual crux is a key bit where the manuscript is unclear, a vital point in supporting an interpretation. And the plural in that context IS "cruces".

A Level pedantry tip: if you ever catch anyone trying to pluralise "status" or "impetus" as "stati" or "impeti", you can have a good laugh at them, because the Latin plural of "status" is "status" (with a long U).

In reply to Tim Chappell: "the climbing use of the term crux is historically a borrowing from a textual critics' use"

Exactly. Many of the early mountaineers and rock climbers were highly educated men, their wealth giving them the leisure time to travel and engage in their eccentric pastime. So perhaps we can assume that the person who first used the term 'crux' in a climbing context would have used 'cruces' as the plural.

It does seem a bit of an affectation these days, though.

In reply to John2:

Yes, it's affected, and should be dropped.

If "criteria" were not well established, I'd be all for "criterions". After all, people seem incapable of getting this one right...

In reply to Tim Chappell: I'm sorry, this is one of my pet hobby horses. Both 'criterions' and 'a criteria' set my nerves on edge in the same way that fingernails scraping down a blackboard do.

In reply to John2: Yes, people need to be incentivized to use the proper form; number, gender, case init m8

In reply to Nao:

Got to be Octopuses or the Beatles song would not work.

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Beatles/_/Octopus's+Garden

In reply to John2:

I agree, it's one of my standard illiteracy tests. BUT if we could just legislate "criterions" into correct usage, which I agree we can't, I'd do it.

In reply to sutty:

That's singular possesive. Otherwise it would have to be "Octopodes' Garden".

In reply to sutty:

Surely that's "octopus's"?

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Talking of latin, affectations and pomposity, I work in healthcare and sometimes have to engage in debate with a consultant who is fond of dismissing remarks he judges inexpert as 'ultracrepidarian'. Bastard.

In reply to sutty: No Sutty, that's the genitive singular not the nominative plural. The correct form is of course Octopodos Garden.

In reply to John2:

Yep!

In reply to John2:

Look here old boy, it could be either but you find some together and some alone, Lennon never said which it was when he wrote the song, or what sort of garden plants were in it.

In reply to sutty:

Was it not Ringo Starr?

In reply to Swig:

It certainly was. And what a terrible song it is. Imagine Abbey Rd without Octopus's Garden and Something... what an improvement that would be.

In reply to Tim Chappell:

Oh, I don't know - a bit of light relief!?

In reply to Blue Straggler:
No need for 'cruxes' or 'cruces' as you can only ever have one crux on a route. Now I know some routes have a '2nd' and even a '3rd' crux but this is silly as they cannot all be exactly as difficult as each other!