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