I said nothing about plural. With apologies to our American cousins, but I would have preferred you offered another authority. Janet ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gavin Bell" <g.bell@which.net> > > That is not the plural of *any* Latin Declension I ever heard of. > > And it isn't "censi", either. > > Latin has 5 different patterns (or "declensions") for the variant forms > of nouns, and there are two which, in the nominative singular, end with > "-us". The better-known is the Second Declension; this gives us > "dominus" (= master), which in the nominative plural, becomes "domini". > But there is also the Fourth Declension, common examples of which are > "domus" (=house) and "manus" (=hand). The nominative plurals of these > are ... "domus" and "manus". And (yes, you've guessed it!) "census" > belongs to the Fourth Declension. So the Latin plural of "census" is > "census". What you choose to use as the plural of the English word is > a different question, although I can see no reason to object to "censuses". > > You can check the latin at: > > http://www.math.ohio-state.edu/~econrad/lang/ln4.html > > > Gavin Bell

As for the Latin word cenere I believe the English translation is 'to dine', while in Italian it is the plural noun for ashes. LJ ________________________________ From: Janet <wightway@clara.co.uk> To: aberdeen@rootsweb.com Sent: Fri, October 16, 2009 4:02:20 PM Subject: Re: [ABERDEEN] What is the plural of census? I said nothing about plural.    With apologies to our American cousins, but I would have preferred you offered another authority. Janet ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gavin Bell" <g.bell@which.net> > > That is not the plural of *any* Latin Declension I ever heard of. > > And it isn't "censi", either. > > Latin has 5 different patterns (or "declensions") for the variant forms > of nouns, and there are two which, in the nominative singular, end with > "-us".  The better-known is the Second Declension;  this gives us > "dominus" (= master), which in the nominative plural,  becomes "domini". > But there is also the Fourth Declension, common examples of which are > "domus" (=house) and "manus" (=hand).  The nominative plurals of these > are ... "domus" and "manus".  And (yes, you've guessed it!) "census" > belongs to the Fourth Declension.  So the Latin plural of "census" is > "census".  What you choose to use as the plural of the English word is > a different question, although I can see no reason to object to "censuses". > > You can check the latin at: > >    http://www.math.ohio-state.edu/~econrad/lang/ln4.html > > > Gavin Bell ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ABERDEEN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Janet wrote: >I said nothing about plural. > If it wasn't offered as an answer to the question about the plural of "census", what was it then? >With apologies to our American cousins, but I would have >preferred you offered another authority. > > I'm sure if you Google you will find one to your taste. Gavin Bell