Ran across the following article which seems to say that we should not use Prii as the plural for the Prius, but use "Priora": But with the plural question simmering anew at Matthew Yglesias's blog, where commenters have suggested Prii, Prix and Priapic as candidates, I wanted to triple-check. 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.' " Full article - http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/30/opinion/edfreeman.php Personally, I still prefer Prii.
Prius is like sheep, you have one or many sheep, one or many Prius. You can keep all the other plural names, mine has a Prius badge on it and that's what it is. A Prius. A couple of Prius. A cluster of Prius. A flock of Prius. A car park full of Prius. Today I saw 18 Prius on the road. Could it be that I'm Australian?
That's the truth. Pat and AussieOwner would disagree with us how to pronounce aluminum, for starters. Then there's things like Des Plaines, Illinois (pronounced Dez Plainz) vs. Des Moines, Iowa (duh moyn). My wife's favorite word to poke fun at us (she's an European immigrant) is "chassis". If it was an English word, we'd prounounce it "cha-sis", pronounced the French way, it's "shah-see'". It's like we switch identities right in the middle of the word. I've read that Toyota uses Prius for both singular and plural, but some get around the issue by using it as an adjective in the plural form: "selling more of the Prius model...".
If Prius actually derived from Latin or was a Latin word, then . . . well, we still wouldn't know. Given that it is a word created by (or for) a Japanese company doing business worldwide, I might drop the Latin references. Then, again, I might not. a priori
You mispronounce aluminium because you left an I out.(I know it the US spelling) Place names should be pronounced how it's pronounced by the locals. Chassis sounds like, sha-see Colour has a U in it. Aussie is not an os-see but sounds ozzee, the Au bakes an oh sound 2 esses make a z sound ie makes an ee sound. Hay would you say half a Prii or half a Prius? You know, in a sentence like, "a Corvette C6 is only half a Prius."
I use Prius. It just feels right. English has the unique ability to change according to popular demand. Nobody uses "good" and "well" properly anymore, and soon the rules will change on them. How did you sleep last night? I slept good. (It should be I slept well) I digress. I think a shit load of prius sounds good. Prii makes you sound pretentious and priuses makes you sound like you are drunk. And think of all the people with a lisp who would feel violated.
Discussed in this thread. As I said there, the purpose of communication is to ... well, communicate. For that, "Priuses" wins, especially for the masses, even if inelegant or offensive to Latin purists. (A Priori, if I'm not mistaken it does derive from Latin.) "Priora" and "Priores" certainly don't accomplish the purpose. I tend to use "Prii" in writing here because it's simple and you folks know what I'm saying, but the word still doesn't sound quite right. A sentence using the plural "Prius" also seems awkward, written or verbal. All IMHO. Like Mapman says, English doesn't always follow the rules. If the rules compromise effective communication, they deserve to be bent or broken. And this comes from one who is AR about his own composition!
As Jim said: Nullum est iam dictum quod non dictum sit prius - Nothing is said that hasn't been said before. (Terence) Yes, "prius" is a Latin word, but it is not used in its Latin form. I'm hardly a Latin scholar, but it seems to me that the word prius is an adverb and not a noun. So, Prius (as in the car) is not a noun derived from Latin. Instead, it is a 20th century adaptation of a Latin word, not a derivation of the same. The only purpose for all of this is to say that there really is hardly a way (except in English!) to take an adverb and make a noun of it. I'll bow to the Latin professor noted above who has come up with some more appropriate ways to express a plural of Prius in Latin form. I guess we just opt for our own preferences. I'll go with Priuses.
I personally prefer the following: Singular Noun: One Prius Plural Noun: Two Prii Collective Noun: A smug of Prii
Well, actually it started as Aluminum by the scientist who was first extracting the metal, but then some aloof literary guy stuck the "i" in for some indecipherable aesthetic reason: Unfortunately the extraneous hoity-toity syllable stuck. The subsequent loss of that syllable in the US may have been the result of an error in an advertising brochure around 1900. However it then stuck in the US, and the American Chemical Society adopted Aluminum as the official name, with Aluminium as an acceptable variant.
This cool article showed up today, with a quotation from Ovid, "Et quotiens scribes, totas prius ipse tabellas. Inspice: plus multae, quam sibi missa, legunt."
