walrii

English

Etymology

In imitation of Latin nominative plural forms of nouns ending in ius. Compare fetii and penii.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) enPR: wôlʹrĭī, IPA^(key): /ˈwɔːlɹɪaɪ/

Noun

walrii

(nonstandard, proscribed, rare) Misconstructed plural form of walrus.
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:walrii.

Usage notes

The plural form walrii is doubly incorrect. Firstly, walrus derives from Danish, not Latin. Secondly, even if walrus were a second-declension Latin noun, the plural form would be walri; in the correct plurals radii and gladii, with which walrii is analogous, the first ‘i’s are part of the words’ stems (radi- and gladi-), and not their case endings — for walrii to be the plural, *walrius would need to be the singular.

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