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Date: | Sat, 8 Nov 2003 15:42:58 -0800 |
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Steve Schwartz wrote:
>Stephen E. Bacher:
>
>>>I do agree. I think we have to blame several trends and people. The
>>>first is the educational system, which cut music programs as "frills"
>>>but kept the football team and the marching band. Consequently, you
>>>have people with expensive educations who are nevertheless cultural
>>>ignorami.
>>
>>Similar to the way Latin is rarely taught in schools anymore, leading
>>to folks believing that the plural of "ignoramus" is "ignorami".:-)
>
>You mean, IT'S NOT? I had Latin in public school through Cicero, but I
>admit I could have forgotten something. Is it one of those "-us"/"-us"
>nouns? Is it actually a first person plural present verb?
It certainly is, "we know nothing". According to the COD the derivation
is *probably* from the play Ignoramus by one Ruggles, which satirised
the ignorance of lawyers.
The plural (and the COD specifies this) is, of course, ignoramuses.
Deryk Barker
dbarker @camosun.bc.ca
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