Re: [OT] The stigma of schema

["W. E. Perry" <wperry@fiduciary.com>]

Hi Uche.

Without disagreeing at all with your larger point about newspeak, I cannot
(pedant, no doubt) let the following pass uncorrected:

Uche Ogbuji wrote:

> Neuter plurals of the fourth declension end in "-us".  Examples off head
> are "manus": hand and "acu": needle.  I always remember that "anus", in
> the fourth declension neuter does *not* mean what the smirking English
> speaker first thinks.

These three nouns are all feminine, not neuter, in grammatical gender. They are
all famous 'gotchas' because they have feminine gender in the otherwise usually
masculine/neuter fourth declension. 'Manus' has an alternate second declension
form; anus, 'granny', fourth declension feminine noun with a short a, is
infamously confused with anus, second declension masculine noun with a long a
(because the following s, present in e.g. Sanskrit, has dropped out in Latin),
which does mean what the smirking English speaker imagines; and acus (the
correct nominative form; acu would be ablative) is notoriously confused with the
second declension masculine noun acus (both have short a), the 'gar' or
'needlefish'.

> Neuter plurals of the fifth declension end in "es".  The most common
> example is "re": thing, matter.  Others off-head are "fides": faith and
> "spes": hope.

These are also all feminine, not neuter, nouns.

My challenge to find an exception to neuter plurals ending in -a therefore still
stands, though I would prefer we got back to XML.

Best regards,

Walter Perry