Suburban

(Expedition or Sequoia also acceptable)

Although rather inefficient because of the double use of two syllables ending with the consonant ’s’ (meaning that it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue), ‘Priuses’ (like ‘Focuses’) would be the most acceptable form.

However, I would imagine that other, more pedantic, affected derivatives, such as Prius, Pria, Prii, or the aforementioned Priora, will likely end up being just as acceptable, simply because they are easier to say and/or write.

My guess will be that if someone wants to simply say a multiple of Prius in the simplest, most direct, easiest understood way possible, they’ll use Priuses.

OTOH, if they want the writing to be witty or florid (which is often the case on TTAC), one of the other forms will be used.

The best thing about seeing one of the non-’Priuses’ forms is that at least it will be unlikely to see the word ‘hoon’ used in the same passage…

It’s a noun and technically a trade name, so the Latin roots are disregarded. Agreed with whoever gave “Focuses” as the example.

The problem with this assessment is that in the context of the Toyota car, “Prius” is a proper noun in English, not an adverb in Latin.

The pluralization should follow English-language rules for nouns. Typically, a singular noun ending in “s” is made plural by adding “es” to the end, e.g. “Charles” would become “Charleses.” That means that “Prius” should become “Priuses.”

Not that it matters for me. I won’t be buying one, anyway.

Seeing as TTAC have allowed this;

it’s a positively plentiful plethora of pedestrian, purposefully pedantic prii. …driven by pricks.

I think you should have an “Ask The B&B” for the collective noun of suburbs and suburbs of Truck owners.

I suggest NAMBLA.

The most fascinating branch of linguistics, to me, is diachronic linguistics. While “diachronic (or historical) linguistics” usually refers to the study of how a particular language has evolved from an earlier form (say, how Classical Latin evolved from Proto-Indo-European), I prefer the other side: studying how language changes presently. It’s much more exciting, because the changes can be observed in real time, throughout one’s life. And while prescriptivism has its place (style guides and such for formal writing), I find it much more interesting to observe the abnormalities of “wrong” English (or of any language) and try to explain why they occur.

Hate to break it to you, but that’s the evolution of language. This is why English is considered a “living” language. Don’t take my word for it, I had an extended conversation with Nunberg (sp?) back when he was at Stanford about this subject (language, not car plurals).

Do I agree with the results? Not always. For shizzle my nizzle…

I think you’re missing the point of my post. We all talk this thing to death and sooner or later we will pick one that seems to work. There will be a preferred term, but not necessarily only one.

Dictionaries are filled with words that mean many things. Some words have meanings that are all over the board. Take ’sanction’ and run with it.

Unless you want to have a council of official word okey-dokeying (like the French) learn to deal with the fact that one of the few truly democratic processes in the English language IS the English language.

Dictionaries report the results of the popular usage ‘vote’.

what the “0″ in GTO is in Italian and what it stands for[?]

Gran Turismo Omologato which may be translated as Grand Touring Homologated, or homologated by the FIA for inclusion in the grand touring class of automobiles.

Actually there wasn’t a single soul at GM who spoke a word of Italian. Ferrari had built a model designated “250 GTO” in 1962 which won the GT championship in 1962, 63 and 64. So Pontiac ripped off the name for its big engine option package on the Tempest LeMans.

True, but I can’t think of a Latin word where you find the “-ii” ending. Besides, I was trying to not delve into declensions and such. I wish I had taken more Latin in college.

TexasAg03: It’s not a matter of it having a consonant. It’s a matter of what declension the noun or adjective is and its grammatical gender.

So sayeth the editors of the OED.

Language, especially English, is constantly evolving.

So, pick your plural and run with it.

My source for prius being an adverb is Cassell’s Latin-English Dictionary CR about 1925 or so (someone else can supply the A.U.C. date, which is since the founding of Rome :))….it means “formerly”, as in “He formerly batted .500″.
That is the only listing for prius. While it does end in -us, that does NOT automatically make it a second declension masculine noun.
Cassell’s is also the source for the related noun being prior.

But this is just text reference plus the faint echoes of memory from my 5 years of high school Latin in the ’60’s.

Sure it doesn’t mean squat. But then we seem to have gotten (and this is *another* barfight) not much of any means squat. It’s all just words, without any particular necessary meaning. And yet, pi is still 3.14 and not 3….I think.

Another favorite car name is the “Grand Prix”…which should either the “Gran Prix” and the “Grand Prize”….OTOH, how about “Gran Prize”?

2 cents for the first 5 people who can correctly supply what the “0″ in GTO is in Italian and what it stands for. Hint: It has nothing to do with male same-sex affection.

Stewart, who had the immense good fortune to grow up with two Bugattis and a Maserati when they didn’t cost much……….

Having a lot of fun…this is a public barfight and anyone can join in! But please, clean and fair punches…….

New Year Resolution for TTAC:
A Style Guide.

Like ‘The Economist’ has.

Please include usage for ‘Craptastic’. I think many are using it incorrectly.

The news: “A six-acre lot full of Prii!”
The audience: “The hell is pree?”

Technically, the most likely candidate for the plural for the Latin term “prius” is “priora” or “priores”. From a Boston Globe article:

So I put the question to Harry Mount, author of the new book “Carpe Diem,” a paean to the joys of Latin.

“Yes, it’s Priora,” he told me, “because it’s neuter plural. But if you cheated a bit and made the car masculine or feminine – and I do think of cars as female – then it would be Priores. And Priores has nice undertones of grandness – Virgil used it to mean ‘forefathers’ or ‘ancestors.’ “

Link: http://tinyurl.com/76ocjc

“Prii” should not be used. Replacing the “-us” with “-i” only works if the preceding letter is a consonant. In this case, it is a vowel. For instance, the word “fungus” has a plural “fungi”.

95% of the general American English speaking public will say Priuses, with maybe 4.9% of the others saying Prii. The other .1% or less are going to have people asking them what the heck they are talking about.

Well, whatever. The linguist in me wants to confirm the Latin plural, but the American in me doesn’t want to walk upstairs and get my grammar book. I really hope I never hear anyone say Priis!

EDIT: Someone already posted Ed LaRocque’s response on the previous thread. Oh well.