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And, to get truly technical, while the English word "bonus" is indeed a direct borrowing from Latin, in Latin bonus is the masculine singular form of the adjective bonum meaning "good", or as a noun "a good thing." Its use in English goes back to the mid-18th century, so it's not terribly old from a linguistic perspective. As far as I can tell, it's always been used in this fashion. Its proper plural in English is "bonuses".
As Latin uses grammatical gender, bonus (plural boni) used as a noun means "a good man."
Technically, the the correct word to borrow from Latin would have been bonum (plural bona), the neuter form that means "a good thing." Presumably the original coiner of the term wasn't as knowledgable of Latin as he thought he was, or the first common usage referred to people. Regardless, the meaning of the modern English word "bonus" (a little something extra) is distinct from its Latin root, and its proper plural is "bonuses." Using "boni" as a plural of "bonus" is simply wrong in modern usage.
Deliberately doing so would indicate either hubristic pretentiousness, or an attempt at jocularity.
Thank you, Professor, for bringing us back to the original point, then making it "pointier!"
I actually started this thread after seeing "boni" on the messageboards one too many times, setting me off into an irritation-induced rage at the "hubristic pretentiousness" that, to me, must have been the origin of the poor pluralization of the word. That is, I don't think that the majority of "boni" users use it for any reason other than to imitate what they believe to be correct.
I hope for the originator that it was, indeed, an "attempt at jocularity," and I want to give the benefit of the doubt but I'm just not convinced that it isn't born of wrong and, like so many other nuisances, the wrong just keeps reproducing.
On a related note in English, the opposite of a "bonus" is generally a "penalty". I see a lot of non-native speakers use "Mallus" (which is often the only oddity in their grammar).
You know, it didn't even occur to me that users of "boni" may not be native English speakers (or speakers at a native level). Usually when I see it, it's in a post that is well written (with regards to language, at least) and is usually the only thing that sticks out beyond mistakes that decently educated, adult, native English speakers often make.
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I still twitch when I read "an errata."
I still twitch when I read "an errata."
I think that the majority of English-as-a-first-language speakers are relatively uninformed/uneducated regarding "foreign" plurals, particularly Latin neuter plural. How often do you hear about an interesting datum? Usually, you will hear "piece of data," which is mostly right but not very concise. I don't think I've ever heard anybody refer to an erratum, at least not out loud.
I mentioned "graffito," earlier, too. If it doesn't end in "-es," you will lose a lot of American English speakers. Sad, but apparently true.
Oh, yeah! I almost forgot about "a lot." Please, for the love of whatever you consider important, don't ever write "alot."
I still twitch when I read "an errata."I think that the majority of English-as-a-first-language speakers are relatively uninformed/uneducated regarding "foreign" plurals, particularly Latin neuter plural. How often do you hear about an interesting datum? Usually, you will hear "piece of data," which is mostly right but not very concise. I don't think I've ever heard anybody refer to an erratum, at least not out loud.
I mentioned "graffito," earlier, too. If it doesn't end in "-es," you will lose a lot of American English speakers. Sad, but apparently true.
Oh, yeah! I almost forgot about "a lot." Please, for the love of whatever you consider important, don't ever write "alot."
As someone smart once said about pronunciation, you must often choose between sounding like an ignorant toad or sounding like a supercilious toad.
1:"We visited several chateaux."
2:"I've always wanted to see some chateaus."
1:"You mean chateaux?" (you ignoramus!)
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I still twitch when I read "an errata."I think that the majority of English-as-a-first-language speakers are relatively uninformed/uneducated regarding "foreign" plurals, particularly Latin neuter plural. How often do you hear about an interesting datum? Usually, you will hear "piece of data," which is mostly right but not very concise. I don't think I've ever heard anybody refer to an erratum, at least not out loud.
I mentioned "graffito," earlier, too. If it doesn't end in "-es," you will lose a lot of American English speakers. Sad, but apparently true.
Oh, yeah! I almost forgot about "a lot." Please, for the love of whatever you consider important, don't ever write "alot."
I was very, very, very disappointed in Google Docs sometime last week when their spellcheck wanted to correct "a lot" to "alot".
I still twitch when I read "an errata."I think that the majority of English-as-a-first-language speakers are relatively uninformed/uneducated regarding "foreign" plurals, particularly Latin neuter plural. How often do you hear about an interesting datum? Usually, you will hear "piece of data," which is mostly right but not very concise. I don't think I've ever heard anybody refer to an erratum, at least not out loud.
I mentioned "graffito," earlier, too. If it doesn't end in "-es," you will lose a lot of American English speakers. Sad, but apparently true.
Oh, yeah! I almost forgot about "a lot." Please, for the love of whatever you consider important, don't ever write "alot."
I was very, very, very disappointed in Google Docs sometime last week when their spellcheck wanted to correct "a lot" to "alot".
Eagles are all about efficiency.
Aha! So people who say "boni" are pretentious boneheads, correct?
Boniiheads.
For example, Octopus comes from Greek, so the plural would be Octopedes.
Not octopodes?
<All that stuff about English>
A friend of mine - German, English philologist - calls English half-jokingly "New West Saxon", because there are so few remnants of the original British languages contained in it.
As to the original point of the post: the German plural of "Bonus" is both "Bonusse" and "Boni". So we are fine either way. :D
I have seen people use 'boni' as the singular and 'bonii' for the plural (add more 'i's for emphasis).
What's the plural of Hawaii? Or vixen?
:)
I thought the 'Boni" were a political faction in Republican Rome?
Plural of Hawaii is Hawaiii, of course.
I am not a native english speaker, so I may be uninformed about some of this, but...
Towards is apparently not an acceptable word in english... and yet it's everywhere. Use toward.
I feel a twitch whenever I see "an information", or "informations".
I also hurt when I see people write "peoples" when not referring to ethnic groups or the like. "All these peoples are going to need food."
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My favorite fake word is "nother."
As in: "That is a whole nother issue."
"Another" is a contraction of "an" and "other," not "a" and "nother." If you are separating the word, then you have to use "a" or "an" as an article appropriate to the adjective that follows it.
So:
"A whole other issue" is okay.
"Another issue entirely" sounds even better in my opinion.
"A whole nother issue" is nonsense.
I have never seen "nother" in written speech; it even looks ridiculous. But people say it all the time.
I approve of this thread.
I approve of this thread.
Salutations, Mr. Grammarian! Did we meet at the 1989 Linguistcs conference in Oslo, or have I confused you with a different proponent of proper usage?
Did we meet at the 1989 Linguistcs conference in Oslo?
Isofar as I exist only as a construct of electrons, this possibility seems moderately impossible.
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Ahem...
Insofar as I exist only as a construct of electrons, this possibility seems moderately impossible.
I'm going to have to ask you to turn in your badge and highlighter.
English has started to borrow from American.
The shame. :(
Boni. Boonnniiii. BONI. Boni, boni, boni.
One bonus, two boni.
Had never seen this one before, but I like how it sounds. I'm going to use it from now on. Thank you guys, for showing me this adorably cromulent word.