Thank you to everyone for their input. It was a question asked because I genuinely didn't know what the correct term is - but now I do! And, of course, being the pedant that I am, I need to know what is correct! Many thanks Pat "Here's tae us! Wha's like us? Damn few! - an' they're a' deid!" Old Scots Toast -----Original Message----- From: aberdeen-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:aberdeen-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Lee Jameson-Krampp Sent: 16 October 2009 20:59 To: aberdeen@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [ABERDEEN] What is the plural of census? What a joy it is to read the postings and see the back and forth as people scattered across continents do their best to answer others' questions.  It always proves to be interesting And then steps in Mr Gavin Bell with the definitive answer! Thank you Gavin for census. I have saved my Latin texts from eons ago and must agree that the plural of census is census.  As a former broadcast journalist and television news presenter however, I would be inclined to pluralise census as censuses for an English speaking audience. By the way, the translation of censi is the poorest class of Roman citizens. With best wishes from Sunnidale, Ontario, Canada. Lee Jameson   ________________________________ From: Gavin Bell <g.bell@which.net> To: aberdeen@rootsweb.com Sent: Fri, October 16, 2009 3:18:46 PM Subject: Re: [ABERDEEN] What is the plural of census? Janet wrote: >The Latin is censere. >  > 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