Thursday, November 10, 2011

A whimsical muse

I was thinking as I worked on my latest post for my IDOL dissertation blog (and thus for my IDOL dissertation). I had occasion to use the word "focus," but I wanted to use the plural. I thought "If the plural of 'locus' (a point, as on a line graph) is 'loci' (pronounced lo-kee), then the plural of 'focus' must be 'foci' (fo-kee), right?" Well, I put it in the text in Word and didn't get a squiggly red line! I was certainly encouraged. (I verified this with dictionary.com and it is listed as one possible plural)

So, I got to thinking further (you know, that usually means trouble): so if the plural of "locus" is "loci" and the plural of "focus" is "foci," then the plural of (wait for it....) the plural of "hocus pocus" has got to be "hoci poci" (ho-kee po-kee), right? And that's what it's all about!

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