More than three years ago, on New Year’s Eve of 2007, our Beloved Leader, the dearly departed Robert Farago rattled the Best and Brightest with one of his thought (and sometimes aggression) provoking questions. This time, it was: “What’s the plural of Prius?”
Damned if I know, but a few days ago, the TTAC server reported repeated search terms for the very same “What’s the plural of Prius?” I decided to do my journalistic duty and investigate. The results were shocking.
It turns out that Toyota celebrates its release of a whole family of, well, Priuses or whatever, with an on-line campaign that raises the same question RF raised three years ago:
The banner leads you to a Toyota website. I can’t figure out whether you can win anything. I can’t even divine how to register my vote for Prii, Priora, Priores, or Priapuses. But maybe that’s just me.
However, I found out how Toyota got into this quandary. My adviser on Japanese cultural matters, Tomoko Schmitto-san, tells me that there is no plural for things in the Japanese language, and a car is a thing or a neuter in Nihongo. It’s “ichi-dai no kuruma” and “ni-dai no kuruma”, or “one car” and “two car”. In Japanese, the question never comes up. It would be, converted to Romaji, “ichi-dai no Purius” and “ni-dai no Purius” (with the “r” pronounced somewhere between the “l” and the “r”.)
For those who are still scratching their heads about what the plural of Prius may be, here a re-release of Robert Farago’s epic piece from December 13, 2007:
I know TTAC is the hard man of the autoblogosphere, but sometimes I can’t resist taking a walk on nerdy side (and the pistonhead girls go do do do do…). The International Herald Tribune addresses one of rivet counters’ most vexing questions, as above. Previously, on “You Need To Get A Life,” Trib author Jan Freeman declared that the appropriate term for more than one Toyota Prius was “Prioria.” Reader Christopher Casey took exception, kinda. “You were right that Prius is the neuter nominative/accusative singular of the adjective prior, but the plural forms of the word – which means ‘earlier, better, more important’- would be Priora, not Prioria.” Freeman rang-up Harry Mount, author of “Carpe Diem” (a.k.a. “Latin isn’t half as dull as you think it is. More like a quarter”). “Yes, it’s Priora,” he told Freeman, “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.’ So if your hybrids are named for the dames of ancient Rome – Drusilla, Octavia, Agrippina – you’re granted poetic license. Otherwise, Priora is the Latin plural you’re looking for.” Mea culpa! TTAC’s been using Prii. We sit corrected.
Sure. But if he would have trademarked “What’s the Plural of Prius?”, we’d be rich by now.
I like the German sounding exit: Prien. And it is now for the marketing guys to create a cute story to justify it!
Failing that, I vote for Priuses. It fits what is used for (all?) other cars on the road today: the English plural way.
I don’t know what the plural of Prius is, but I’m pretty sure the group name would be a “Smug of Prius”
Is Prius the short form of Priapus?
Priusux.
Unfortunately, “cks” is not an option.
According to Craig Ferguson last night, it’s “quiche”. As in, “A quiche of Priuses.” I haven’t heard anything better.
Goose/geese, moose/meese, Prius/Preese? :)
Certum est quod certum reddi potest. And I’m not dead yet you bastards.
Glad to see that you are still lurking in the background. Maybe you can buy it back someday.
And for that, I am glad. I didn’t like the ‘dearly departed’ talk, either.
May God rest your soul.
The plural of Prius = A gagful of reflux
Prius may be a Latin word, but we don’t speak Latin here. Just as there’s no plural in Japanese, there’s a system in English, adding an “s” or “es” to the word. Once we steal a word from another language and add it to our language, it’s an English word, and English rules apply. That means the plural of Prius is Priuses in English-speaking countries. I suspect long-departed English teachers are rolling over in their graves at high rpm over this.
Taxis
The plural of Prius is “Prai”: http://asiancorrespondent.com/31255/no-longer-ashamed-to-be-a-prai/
Actually, the Prai know nothing about the Prius.
“Prius” is already plural. The singular is “Priu”. Joke’s on us, since Toyota knew they’d be building more than one.
So when somebody asks you how your “Prius” is doing, they need to specify which one.
I’d do what others have done, you have Foci, Tauri, and now, Prii (pronounced just like prius, but leave off the us and make the second i long)
But then again, we know the answer already as in Prous IS plural. Oh well.
You deleted my comment? Seriously? Where’s the truth in that?
The plural of Prius is- Who gives a shit?
Well, there’s one thing that’s indisputable – the Prius is most definitely a neuter.