[QUOTE=sonictrey;22116845]Personally, I think it's peni[/QUOTE]
no not really
penor
penii
Technically, it's penii, but who cares. Not worth a thread, like CT says.
penis (plural penises or penes)
Taken from Wiktionary but meh
Why do you need to know. How could you be involved with multiple penises/peni/penor/penis/vagina?
Anyone who didnt vote for vagina likes dick.
If the plural of cact[i]us[/i] is cacti, then is the plural of b[i]us[/i] bi?
[QUOTE] A Staff Report from the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board
[B]What is the plural of "penis"?[/B]
January 13, 2004
Dear Straight Dope:
What exactly is the plural of [I]penis[/I]? I would say [I]penises[/I], but it seems too simple and obvious. Is it [I]penis[/I], like [I]deer[/I], or maybe [I]peni[/I], like [I]fungi[/I]?
— Sissy, Emerald Isle, NC
If you have more than one, you should be writing to Ripley's and not to the Straight Dope. Heck, Sissy, if you have even one, the first thing you should do is change your name to Buddy.
In this case, your first instinct is a good one. The English-style plural is usually acceptable and often preferred. When you don't know what the Latin plural is and don't have a dictionary handy, you should choose the English-style plural rather than try to guess. (Sometimes even dictionaries will steer you wrong; see below). In your example, [I]penises[/I] is a perfectly good plural of penis in English. Many people who deal with penises professionally use the Latin-style plural [I]penes[/I] instead. That's fine too, but even among urologists, penises seem to predominate. Seems, rather. "Penises" seems to predominate.
Guessing the plural of a Latin word is one of those things where a little learning is a dangerous thing (but that's still "not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance," to quote Terry Pratchett). Those with entirely too much learning know that Latin nouns are divided into five categories, called declensions. To figure out the plural of a Latin noun without cheating (i.e., looking it up), it is necessary, and often sufficient, to know which of the five declensions it belongs to. (There are a few nouns, like [I]virus[/I], that don't fit neatly into any of the declensions, but more on that later). For example, you mention [I]peni[/I] as a possible plural of penis. The [I]-i[/I] ending is valid for forming the plural of second-declension Latin nouns ending in [I]-us[/I], but of course that doesn't apply to penis. Part of the problem is that when unaccented, the singular endings [I]-us[/I] and [I]-is[/I] tend to be pronounced the same in English. Those with a little learning know that [I]penus[/I], if it were a second declension noun like most [I]-us[/I] nouns in Latin, would be expected to have the plural form [I]peni[/I]. Since [I]penus[/I] would be pronounced the same--or almost the same--as penis in English, the temptation is strong to use the incorrect peni as the plural. Peni is an example of what is called pseudo-Latin, something that looks like Latin but isn't. A similar mistake is using [I]porpi[/I] as the plural of [I]porpoise[/I], but in that case the singular was long spelled [I]porpus[/I] under the mistaken impression that it was a Latin word.
Penis is a third declension noun, not second declension. These nouns often end in [I]-is[/I] in the singular and [I]-es[/I] in the plural. The English style [I]-ises[/I] is sometimes preferred. Hence, we have penises (half of us do, anyway), and [I]mantises[/I] and [I]pelvises[/I], but only more rarely do you see [I]penes[/I], [I]mantes[/I], and [I]pelves[/I], though they are not incorrect. In many cases, only the Latin form is acceptable: We have [I]testes[/I] (some more than others) and [I]crises[/I] and [I]psychoses[/I], but never [I]testises[/I], [I]crisises[/I], or [I]pyschosises[/I].
Another group of third-declension Latin nouns, mostly borrowed from Greek, end in [I]-is[/I] in the singular, but the full root is not found in that form. These you either have to learn by heart or look up. For example, the Latin plural of [I]iris[/I] is [I]irides[/I], which is acceptable in English, but I prefer [I]irises[/I]. I like [I]clitorises[/I], but the Latin form [I]clitorides[/I] is also acceptable.
Among second declension [I]-us[/I] nouns borrowed into English, the English style plural [I]-uses[/I] is often preferred to the Latin [I]-i[/I]. Thus [I]isthmuses[/I] and [I]crocuses[/I] are generally preferred, but [I]isthmi[/I] and [I]croci[/I] are still acceptable. For many words, the Latin style is preferred, but the English is acceptable, as in [I]fungi[/I] (or [I]funguses[/I]). Sometimes the Latin style is preferred in technical usage, while the English style is better for the nontechnical. Mathematically speaking, ellipses have [I]foci[/I], while investigations may have [I]focuses[/I].
Of course the English style [I]-uses[/I] requires an extra syllable, and you have to judge for yourself whether it's worth it for polysyllabic words. Nuclei rolls off the tongue easier than [I]nucleuses[/I], but both are acceptable. Either the long [I]hippopotami[/I] or the longer[I] hippopotamuses[/I] is acceptable, but it's easy to see why some people are attracted to [I]hippos[/I]. In Greek, the African pachyderm was called a riverine horse: [I]hippopotamos[/I] (plural [I]hippopotamoi[/I]) or [I]hippos potamios[/I] (plural [I]hippoi potamioi[/I]). Since only the Latinized form in [I]-us[/I] is found in English, neither of these Greek plurals is needed. The shortened form [I]hippo[/I] is found only in English and can only take the plural hippos. You may sometimes see [I]hippoi[/I] used in English as the plural of hippo. [I]Hippoi[/I] is properly the Greek plural of [I]hippos[/I] ("horse"), not of hippo.
Note that [I]rhinoceros[/I] is a pachyderm of a different color. Both words are ultimately from Greek, and the last syllable is pronounced the same in English, but [I]rhinoceri[/I] is not proper Latin (nor Greek). That form has found its way into some English dictionaries, but I would advise against messing with rhinoceri. In Latin rhinoceros is a third declension noun with the plural [I]rhinocerotes[/I]. Rarely you see the plural form [I]rhinocerontes[/I] in English, but that is properly the plural of a variant Latin singular form, [I]rhinoceron[/I]. You'll be laughed straight out of the zoo if you try to use either one in English. Stick to [I]rhinoceroses[/I]. Or better yet, [I]rhinos[/I] (certainly not [I]rhinoi[/I]).
One other group of Latin nouns in [I]-us[/I] is different. These are fourth-declension masculine nouns. The plural in Latin is spelled the same as the singular, but the [I]u[/I] is pronounced long rather than short. When these words are borrowed into English, the English-style plural is almost always preferred over the Latin. We have [I]censuses[/I], [I]hiatuses[/I], [I]sinuses[/I], and [I]fetuses[/I] (or [I]foetuses[/I]). The second-declension style endings are never correct, so no [I]cenci[/I], [I]hiati[/I], [I]sini[/I], or [I]feti[/I] please. [I]Apparatus[/I] is rarely pluralized in English. When a plural is needed, either [I]apparatus[/I] or [I]apparatuses[/I] is acceptable, but never [I]apparati[/I]. It so happens that [I]penus[/I], the near homophone of penis that I mentioned above, is a real word in Latin but of the fourth declension, so the plural is [I]penus[/I], not [I]peni.[/I] It means "household stock," something you would presumably want to stow along with the family jewels.
Yet another group of Latin nouns in [I]-us[/I] follow different rules. If you're still taking notes, these form another subset of the third declension. Typically in these cases the singular does not include the full root. The plural of [I]genus[/I] is [I]genera[/I] (not [I]genuses[/I] and certainly not [I]geni[/I]). In English the plural of [I]opus[/I] (meaning a creative work) is [I]opera[/I] (or [I]opuses[/I]). In Latin, opera was originally the plural of opus, but in both Latin and English, opera can correctly be treated as a singular. In English the plural of opera (the thing that ain't over till the fat lady sings) is [I]operas[/I]. When opera is used as a singular in Latin (where it meant more of less the same thing as opus), the correct plural is [I]operae[/I], but this is rarely if ever used in English.
[I]Octopus[/I] is another of these third declension nouns in Latin, borrowed from Greek. The Latin plural is [I]octopodes[/I], which is acceptable in English, but [I]octopuses[/I] (or even [I]octopus[/I]) seems more at home in English. The form [I]octopi[/I] is quite common in English, but it is pseudo-Latin. It is based on the mistaken belief that octopus was a second-declension noun like fungus. It has made its way into many English dictionaries, but I would not recommend getting tangled up with octopi. It is true that many standard English words have entered the language through mistakes ([I]an apron[/I] from [I]a napron[/I], [I]pea[/I] from [I]pease[/I], etc.), so octopi may not be totally indefensible. But people who know Latin, admittedly not a large group, will think less of you for using it.
There is one more common English [I]-us[/I] word borrowed from Latin that doesn't follow any of the rules above: virus. To the Romans a virus was a dangerous or disgusting substance, anything from snake venom to body odor. Ancient grammarians couldn't agree whether the word was a third-declension noun, a fourth-declension noun or in a class by itself, but the one thing they could agree on was that it didn't have a plural form. Ever. To the Romans, it was a mass noun, not a count noun. That hasn't stopped English writers from inventing pseudo-Latin plural forms to cover the modern countable senses of the word. [I]Viri[/I] is formed on the false assumption that virus is a second-declension noun. ([I]Viri[/I] in fact is the plural of Latin [I]vir[/I], "man".) [I]Virii[/I] is an even worse mistake. Only Latin nouns that end in [I]-ius[/I] form the plural with [I]-ii[/I]. There are no really common English plurals in [I]-ii[/I] other than [I]radii[/I]. That hasn't stopped people from trying out such atrocious forms as [I]virii[/I] and [I]penii[/I]. [I]Virii[/I] would be the plural of [I]virius[/I], if such a word existed in Latin. Other suggested plurals include [I]virora[/I], [I]vira[/I], [I]virua[/I], and [I]vire[/I]. For more on the debate, see [URL]http://www.perl.com/language/misc/virus.html[/URL]. The one inescapable fact is that in classical Latin, there was no plural of the word. In English, the only correct plural is [I]viruses[/I].
Some English [I]-us[/I] nouns were borrowed from other parts of speech in Latin or from other forms (cases) of the noun than the usual nominative. Most of us don't get [I]boni[/I] or ride [I]bi[/I] (but I'm not judgmental if you do). We get [I]bonuses[/I] and ride [I]buses[/I]. Bonus is not a noun in Latin but an adjective meaning "good"; bus is a shortened form of [I]omnibus[/I], which is already a Latin dative plural meaning "for all." A few English nouns in [I]-us[/I] derive from Latin verbs, so they can't be pluralized like Latin nouns. [I]Mandamus[/I] means "we order" in Latin, and [I]ignoramus[/I] means "we are ignorant." We can issue [I]mandamuses[/I] to [I]ignoramuses[/I], but we can safely ignore [I]mandami[/I] from[I] ignorami[/I]. And of course not all nouns that end in [I]-us[/I] are Latin at all. [I]Walruses[/I] may sun themselves on [I]taluses[/I], but you will search [I]tali[/I] for [I]walri[/I] in vain.
Since we've come this far, we may as well deal with some other common Latin plurals that have found their way into English.
First declension Latin singulars end in [I]-a[/I] in the singular and in [I]-ae[/I] in the plural. Often the English and Latin style plurals are both acceptable. You have [I]larvae[/I] (or [I]larvas[/I]) and [I]amoebas[/I] (or [I]amoebae[/I]). When speaking of female graduates, you say [I]alumnae[/I] (but not [I]alumnas[/I]). Sometimes which form to use depends on the context. Radios have [I]antennas[/I] but insects, unless they're trying to tune in a Rimsky-Korsakov number on the wireless, have [I]antennae[/I]. Sometimes the plural form is more common in English than the singular. [I]Minutia[/I] is the singular of [I]minutiae[/I] and [I]alga[/I] is the singular of [I]algae[/I].
There are a few Latin words in [I]-a[/I] that do not form the plural in [I]-ae[/I] because they are third declension nouns borrowed from Greek. The English style plural is usually best. [I]Traumas[/I], [I]dramas[/I], and [I]dogmas[/I] are preferred over [I]traumata[/I], [I]dramata[/I], and [I]dogmata[/I], but [I]stigmata[/I] is preferred over [I]stigmas[/I]. You should never accept [I]enemata[/I] from strangers.
A subset of the second declension ends in [I]-um[/I] in the singular and in [I]-a[/I] in the plural. In English [I]-ums[/I] is sometimes preferred. [I]Forums[/I] (or [I]fora[/I]), [I]gymnasiums[/I] (or [I]gymnasia[/I]), [I]podiums[/I] (or [I]podia[/I]), but [I]bacteria[/I] (not [I]bacteriums[/I]), [I]phyla[/I] (not [I]phylums[/I]). Seers are [I]mediums[/I] but radio and television are two [I]media[/I]. [I]Data[/I] is the plural of [I]datum[/I] in Latin and English. English also has the plural form [I]datums[/I], but only in the cartographic sense (meaning a reference point). In English, purists still rail against using data and media with a singular verb. These are instances of usages that began as mistakes but are now so common that they are arguably correct. Another example of the same evolution is [I]agenda[/I]. In Latin (and sometimes in English) it is the plural of [I]agendum[/I] (meaning "a thing that needs to be done") but is now almost invariably treated as a singular in English (meaning "a list or set of things that need to be done"), with the correct English plural [I]agendas[/I]. Plural forms that take a further pluralization (correctly or incorrectly) are called "double plurals." Other examples include the incorrect forms [I]alumnis[/I] and [I]bacterias[/I] and the correct [I]operas[/I]. One caution--[I]quorum[/I] is a genitive plural pronoun in Latin. The English plural is [I]quorums[/I], never [I]quora[/I].
Latin words ending in [I]-ies[/I] are usually the same in the singular and plural, both in Latin and in English. [I]Series[/I], [I]species[/I], [I]caries[/I] (as in dental caries) are correct as singular and plural.
Latin singulars ending in [I]-on[/I] are borrowings from Greek and usually end in [I]-a[/I] in the plural in Latin. [I]Phenomena[/I] (or arguably [I]phenomenons,[/I] as in "singing phenomenons"), [I]ganglia[/I] (or [I]ganglions[/I]). Sometimes the English-style plural seems more natural, as in [I]automatons[/I] (but [I]automata[/I] is acceptable). [I]Criteria[/I] is now sometimes used as a singular in English, but it started life as the plural of [I]criterion[/I].
Latin singulars in [I]-x[/I] have plurals in [I]-ces[/I] or -[I]ges[/I] in Latin, but in English [I]-ixes[/I] is usually preferred. [I]Dominatrixes[/I] (or [I]dominatrices[/I]), [I]indexes[/I] (or [I]indices[/I]), [I]cervixes[/I] (or [I]cervices[/I]). The bones of the fingers and toes are [I]phalanges[/I] but infantry formations are more often [I]phalanxes[/I].
There are several odd words whose plurals will not be obvious from the above rules. One oddball is [I]pubes[/I] (two syllables, meaning the pubic region or pubic hair). It is the same in the singular and plural in Latin and English. The supposed singular [I]pubis[/I] is pseudo-Latin, except when it means the pubic bone (in full, [I]os pubis[/I], "bone of the pubes"). The plural of [I]specimen[/I] in Latin is [I]specimina[/I], but in English [I]specimens[/I]. The plural of [I]exemplar[/I] is [I]exemplaria[/I] in Latin, but [I]exemplars[/I] is a better model for English.
Some words from Latin are more common in the plural, so the singular form may not be obvious. [I]Mores[/I] (as in folkways and mores) has the rare singular form [I]mos[/I]. [I]Viscera[/I] (the internal organs) has the rare singular [I]viscus[/I]. [I]Insignia[/I] and [I]regalia[/I] are the plurals of [I]insigne[/I] and [I]regale[/I] in Latin, but these singulars are rare in English. [I]Paraphernalia[/I] is a plural in English and Latin. It has a rare English singular, [I]paraphernal[/I]. The Latin singular, not found in English, is [I]paraphernalis[/I]. [I]Feces[/I] (or [I]faeces[/I]) is plural in Latin with the singular [I]fex[/I] (or [I]faex[/I]). It is usually treated as a singular in English. [I]Stamina[/I] started life as the plural of [I]stamen[/I] ("thread") but is now usually a singular in English, except sometimes when referring to sexual anatomy (of the botanical kind). Flowers may have many stamina, but Gennifer's former lover has much stamina.
The name of our species, [I]Homo sapiens[/I] (literally "wise human") is singular in both Latin and English. The plural of the phrase in Latin--in the non-technical sense of a wise human--would be [I]homines sapientes[/I], but there is never any call to use a plural in English. There is only one species called [I]Homo sapiens[/I]. [I]Homo sapien[/I] as the supposed singular of [I]Homo sapiens[/I] is an abomination. I call this a "double singular." [I]Kudo[/I] as the supposed singular of [I]kudos[/I] is another example. Borrowed directly from the Greek, [I]kudos[/I] ("praise") is already singular. The questionable form [I]congery[/I] formed from the Latin singular [I]congeries[/I] is another instance. [I]Bicep[/I], [I]tricep[/I], [I]quadricep[/I], and [I]forcep[/I] are incorrectly formed from [I]biceps[/I], [I]triceps[/I], [I]quadriceps[/I], and [I]forceps[/I], which are already singular.
[I]Gladiolus[/I] has given rise to a double singular too. Gladiolus is a Latin singular with the plural form [I]gladioli[/I]. This is probably the best choice for the plural in English, but [I]gladioluses[/I] is also acceptable. The similarity of sound of [I]-as[/I] and [I]-us[/I] in unaccented English syllables makes some people believe the word is [I]gladiolas[/I], which they suppose is a plural with the singular form [I]gladiola[/I]. This double singular has made its way into some dictionaries, but the shortened [I]glad[/I] would be a happier choice.
Other than Latin words and Greek words mostly borrowed through Latin, few words have been borrowed into English complete with their foreign plurals. In the case of many of the western Romance languages (such as French, Spanish, and Portuguese), it's usually hard to tell because in these languages plurals often end in the letter [I]s[/I], as in English. Linguists believe this form of the plural in western Romance languages is derived from the Latin forms [I]-as[/I], [I]-os[/I], and [I]-es[/I] (first, second, and third declension masculine and feminine accusative plurals, used for direct objects) and not, as you might expect, from forms like [I]-es[/I] (third declension nominative plurals, used for subjects). The native English pluralizing suffixes spelled [I]-s[/I] and [I]-es[/I] (but often pronounced with a [I]/z/[/I] sound) come from the same ultimate source (one class of proto-Indo-European plural endings), but by a very different route. It is largely a matter of chance that Old English and Old French happened to retain the same plural endings, almost to the exclusion of the many other plural endings in PIE. After the Norman invasion, the introduction of French [I]-s[/I] may have hastened the decline of other plural endings in English, but the process was already underway. We still have [I]oxen[/I] and [I]brethren[/I] (if we can tell them apart), but we no longer wear [I]shoen[/I] and live in [I]housen[/I].
Unlike French and Spanish, Italian gets its plurals from the Latin nominative rather than the accusative. When borrowed into English, these give us such words as [I]graffiti[/I], which is properly the plural of [I]graffito[/I], but which is now often treated as a singular in English. A particularly interesting case is [I]bandit[/I]. We anglicized the Italian [I]bandito[/I] to [I]bandit[/I] in the singular but still sometimes use the Italian plural [I]banditti[/I] alongside the English form [I]bandits[/I]. [I]Cognoscenti[/I] is the plural of the obsolete Italian [I]cognoscente[/I]. Also from Italian we get many food terms that are plurals in that language, but treated as singular in English: [I]spaghetti[/I], [I]broccoli[/I], and [I]zucchini[/I].
Some Hebrew plurals such as [I]seraphim[/I] and [I]cherubim[/I] exist alongside the English-style plurals like [I]seraphs[/I] and [I]cherubs[/I]. From Arabic, we have [I]jinn[/I] (or [I]djinn[/I]) as the plural of [I]jinni[/I] (or [I]djinni[/I]).
Other languages are not often honored by having their plurals accepted on equal terms. For example, you would never say that this Staff Report is longer than many Icelandic [I]sögur[/I]; you would say that this Staff Report is longer than many Icelandic [I]sagas[/I]. And that, I think, is quite long enough.
— bibliophage
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Staff Reports are written by the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board, Cecil's online auxiliary. Though the SDSAB does its best, these columns are edited by Ed Zotti, not Cecil, so accuracywise you'd better keep your fingers crossed.
[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2139/what-is-the-plural-of-penis[/url]
I like to use penises, because when you say "LOOK AT ALL DEM' PENISES" it sounds much better.
vagina
[QUOTE=icypenguin;22117323]Why do you need to know. How could you be involved with multiple penises/peni/penor/penis/vagina?[/QUOTE]
bukkake?
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