Sunday, February 27, 2011

Plural of prius, by popular demand, is...

So Toyota had a promotion to decide the plural of Prius, the hybrid car model, and the winner is (are?) Prii.

While I initially had a rant in mind about setting language by vote, I've thought about it, and I figure this is just a more explicit way of doing what we actually do anyway. While pedants rave (and I can be as pedantic as the next guy... no, I can be way more pedantic than the next guy), it's a fact that usage ultimately determines grammar, spelling, word order, and other features of our language. And, ultimately, usage is a vote.

So we are a family with two Prii.

(I wish that didn't sound so contrived.)

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