"martin" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 21:30:01 +0000, Kay Easton
wrote:

In article , Franz Heymann
writes

"Jaques d'Alltrades" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Franz Heymann" contains these
words:

My mistake. I was thinking of both virii and spammed email.

pedant

Virus is a collective noun.

One solitary influenza virus may be inspected under the electron
microscope.microscope.
Granted, I don't know whether an influenza and a legionnaire'd disease
virus
lying side by side should be referred to as a pair of viruses or a pair
of
virii. (On the assumption that the legionnaire's disease thingy is
indeed a
virus at all)

It wouldn't be virii anyway, would it? That'd be the plural of virius.

Thanks for helping me to discover that an OED CD made for Win95 won't
run with WinXP :-(((

If you will let me have it at a sensible secondhand price, I will take it
off you. Payment will result ASAP *after* I have veruified that it will run
on my Windows 98. {:-))
(All on the assumption that it is an OED and not a Concise Oxford.)

Franz