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Plural of Sisyphus?

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rbo...@google.com

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Apr 14, 2017, 1:33:54 PM4/14/17
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What is the plural for Sisyphus please: Sisyphi or Sisyphii or something else?

I want to use the Latin plural when writing about Sisyphus in English; so I guess I want to ignore declensions and assume the nominative... (?)

Thank you, |r:b:

John W Kennedy

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Apr 14, 2017, 2:45:57 PM4/14/17
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On 4/14/17 1:33 PM, rbo...@google.com wrote:
> What is the plural for Sisyphus please: Sisyphi or Sisyphii or something else?
>
> I want to use the Latin plural when writing about Sisyphus in English; so I guess I want to ignore declensions and assume the nominative... (?)

“Sisyphus” is a Latinization of Greek Σίσυφος, so it’s definitely Second
Declension. That would make the plural “Sisyphi” (Gk. Σίσυφοι).

--
John W. Kennedy
"The blind rulers of Logres
Nourished the land on a fallacy of rational virtue."
-- Charles Williams. "Taliessin through Logres: Prelude"

Ed Cryer

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Apr 14, 2017, 5:14:52 PM4/14/17
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John W Kennedy wrote:
> On 4/14/17 1:33 PM, rbo...@google.com wrote:
>> What is the plural for Sisyphus please: Sisyphi or Sisyphii or
>> something else?
>>
>> I want to use the Latin plural when writing about Sisyphus in English;
>> so I guess I want to ignore declensions and assume the nominative... (?)
>
> “Sisyphus” is a Latinization of Greek Σίσυφος, so it’s definitely Second
> Declension. That would make the plural “Sisyphi” (Gk. Σίσυφοι).
>

Exactly. It's hard to see just where the suggested alternative arose.

Ed

Will Parsons

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Apr 14, 2017, 8:05:49 PM4/14/17
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Possibly from the bizarre pseudo-plural "virii" of "virus". (And no, I don't
know where *that* one came from either.)

--
Will

John W Kennedy

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Apr 15, 2017, 11:38:23 AM4/15/17
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Probably the same crack’d-mirror universe that gives English “sheepses”.
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