Origin of Slang Term "Boni"?

[Johnny Angel]

Romani domum ite!

Dixi.

Sic tua mater altera nocte non dixit.

 

[Tetsubo]

Language, at least the English language, is fluid. It changes and alters over time.

I prefer 'boni' to 'bonuses' simply because there are fewer letters.

What is really important though is understanding. If your reader understands what you mean when using 'boni' you have succeeded in communicating. After that it's just grammar ninja time...

 

[Desdichado]

Great pretentiousness trap: plural of "opossum". Any takers

I'm confused. It's just opossums, just like you'd think it is.

Besides, isn't opossum a loanword from some Algonquin word or something like that anyway? I don't think it's Greek or Latin. Not a lot of opossums in the Mediterranean region.

 

[Desdichado]

English is not nice, comfy, orderly language. As others have noted - in dark alleys, it mugs other languages and rifles through their pockets for loose grammar. Do you think that after committing such molestation that English is going to be particularly prissy about where it sticks which plural?

I'm one who initially thought that analogy was pretty funny, but really... all languages do that. English has just been particularly good at it.

But it doesn't just randomly jump any language that comes along. It's got a basic Anglo-Saxon vocabulary, with a large Norse overlay from the Danelaw days, a very sizable group of changes can be attributed to the Norman conquest, and more recently it's had a lot of loanwards from native American languages.

But if anything, I think the flow has almost been the reverse of that. Just about any language is littered with English loanwords these days, due to the importance of American and British mass media, commerce and general influence throughout the globe.

 

[Meeki]

In the US congress gets to pick which words are what, the approved dictionaries that sit in the Library of Congress contain the official language. This is why that one harry potter word was put into the dictionary and I think Plutoed was too although that may have just been a word of the year thing.

Octopus is both octopuses and octopi; even if it is wrong in latin it is correct in American english.

 

[Desdichado]

What?! The closest thing to an "approved" dictionary of the entire English language is the Oxford English dictionary, and its contents certainly aren't voted on by the US Congress.

Where are you getting that from?

 

[Huw]

I'm confused. It's just opossums, just like you'd think it is.

Correct. You pass. You are not pretentious.

Besides, isn't opossum a loanword from some Algonquin word or something like that anyway? I don't think it's Greek or Latin. Not a lot of opossums in the Mediterranean region.

So if you said "opossa" you are pretentious and wrong, and if you said "opossumak" you are pretentious and right.

 

[Desdichado]

Correct. You pass. You are not pretentious.

Well... let's not get carried away here.

 

[Asmor]

Mods, please delete.

 

[Nifft]

if you said "opossumak" you are pretentious and right.

That's my happy place. I'll say "opossumak" from now on fer shur.

Thanks, -- N