walrii

English

Etymology

Formed as walr(us) +‎ -ii, the -us of walrus misinterpreted as a nominative singular case ending of a masculine noun of Latin’s second declension; compare fetii and penii.

Pronunciation

• (RP) enPR: wôlʹrĭī, IPA: /ˈwɔːlɹɪaɪ/, X-SAMPA: /"wO:lr\IaI/

Noun

walrii pl

1. (nonstandard, proscribed, rare) Misconstructed plural form of walrus.
   • For usage examples of this term, see the citations page.

Usage notes

• The plural form *walrii is doubly incorrect. Firstly, walrus derives from Danish, not Latin; its etymologically-consistent plural form is walrusser. Secondly, even if walrus were a second-declension Latin noun, the plural form would be *walri; in the correct plurals radii and gladii, with which *walrii is analogous, the first ‘i’s are part of the words’ stems (radi- and gladi-), and not their case endings — for *walrii to be the plural, *walrius would need to be the singular; moreover, walrus couldn’t be a Latin derivation because Latin does not have the letter ‘w’.