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