Boni

[Piratecat]

JeffH is exactly right. It's not "boni," it's "bonatrices." Or "bonatrix" for the feminine. I thought everyone knew that.

And I'll slide this over to Off Topic...

 

[takyris]

I'm going to use "bonatrix" like nobody's business. I'd always assumed that bonatrix were feminine, and penalties were masculine. That would, at the very least, explain some of the vulgar but incedibly specific discussions about what the (male) player wanted to do to that +2 bonus, or what that -2 penalty was doing to him.

 

[Aeric]

Wow, I've never even heard of "boni" before. I must be so fundamentally naive!

As for "gish," I've heard of it but never actually seen it in use. There was a brief period of time when I used the term "fuser," for fighter/magic-user. It was from an old Dragon magazine article.

A friend uses the term "sketch" as a shortened version of "sketchy." Apparently pronouncing that extra syllable is just too much for her. I give her no end of a hard time about it.

 

[Anti-Sean]

Sed "boni" est verum verbum!

Sed boni est verbum verum would be a more correct word order, as the adjective most often follows the noun it modifies.

boni is the plural form of bonus, the masculine form of bonus -a -um. While this adjective means 'good' in English, when it is used as a substantive adjective (i.e. not modifying a noun), the masculine form of the nominative singular case, 'bonus', is translated not as 'good', but as 'a/the good man' or 'a/the good person'. Likewise, the feminine nominative singular 'bona' is translated as 'a/the good woman', and the neuter nominative singular 'bonum' is translated as 'a/the good thing'. If a 'bonus' in English means 'a good thing', that would be a reference to the substantive adjective in the neuter form. Thus, if one wishes to find the plural of 'a/the good thing', 'bonum' would be the correct point from which to start. As it turns out, the neuter plural nominative is not 'boni' (that's masculine), but 'bona'. Therefore, anyone choosing to use a psuedo-Latin plural for the English word 'bonus' should use 'bona', not 'boni'.

In any event, the plural of the English word 'bonus' is 'bonuses', not 'boni', 'bona' or any other word. Please just say 'bonuses'.

 

[kenobi65]

As for "gish," I've heard of it but never actually seen it in use.

I've seen it used fairly frequently over on the WotC boards, esp. on the character-optimization board.

Myself, I wondered for a while why they used the name of an old silent-movie actress for a fighter / wizard, until someone finally mentioned the githyanki connection.

 

[Huw]

Seconded!

Either 1) use the English plural, or 2) use the correct foreign plural (and then only if it's recognisable).

"Bonus" is an English word. It does not mean the same thing as the Latin word it is derived from. It has no other acceptable plural.

My pet hates:

1) octopus. "Correct" plural is "octopodes". "Octopuses" is to be preferred.
2) platypus. Similarly, "platypodes" or "platypuses"
3) omnibus. It's already in the plural!
4) data, criteria. Once again, already plural.
5) mongoose. They ain't geese, they're mongooses.

 

[Anti-Sean]

Myself, I wondered for a while why they used the name of an old silent-movie actress for a fighter / wizard, until someone finally mentioned the githyanki connection.

I thought they were big Smashing Pumpkin fans. :shrug:

 

[kenobi65]

5) mongoose. They ain't geese, they're mongooses.

Bad old joke from my childhood:

"Dear Sirs, please send me two mongooses...no, no, that can't be right..." ::crumples letter, starts over::

"Dear Sirs, please send me two mongeese...no, that sounds wrong, too..." ::crumples letter, starts over::

"Dear Sirs, please send me one mongoose. While you're at it, send two."

 

[Aurora]

I've never said "boni" before but I'm going to start now, just to be contrary.

I consider that an acceptable reason to do so.

 

[Mycanid]

Hmm ... I wonder how "myconid" works itself out..

One myconid? Two myconidi? Myconids? Myconid? Myconoid?

I should go ask the local king about this.

Back after the mind meld in two weeks.