I may have been influenced by the search result but felt it confirmed my bias towards both being at least often used. I suspected 'indices' is a Latinized plural used by people to look educated, and it appears to be. My only disagreement with Gemini is that I programmed for almost 40 years in a variety of systems and I've never seen 'indices' used in documenting computer language array functions, always 'indexes'.
On one of the many "improvement programs" foisted on us at work, we were all required to identify at least one index, that we would track to demonstrate continuous improvement. So, there were multiple indices, and we had a lot of talk about our various indices. That annoyed me, but not as much as as the guy who, no matter how many times I corrected him, kept talking about his indicee.
Perhaps I'm just noticing this sort of thing more and more, but I'm noticing this sort of thing more and more. Insects have antennae, wireless mic receivers have antennas. Formulae preferred in physics and chemistry. No-one goes to visit the sphinges anymore.
The rule used to be whether a word had entered English from another language (usually Latin) with its plural alongside or whether it didn't get pluralised until at least a century later. With the former, it took the Latin plural; with the latter, it took the English plural. Yet I think that was just an attempt to systemetise something that was always a bit random to begin with. If something just sorta sounds silly, like alumnas, then the better-sounding alumnae wins out, regardless of when its first use is recorded.
Sometimes language just does stuff which looks irrational, but everyone just overlooks it. Purists will say "It is I" in English but not even notice that "C'est moi" is fine in elegant French.
Gemini sez both are correct depending on context.
ReplyDeleteThe files have indexes.
The economic indices point to a resumption of growth.
I saw that, but trust my readers more
ReplyDeleteI may have been influenced by the search result but felt it confirmed my bias towards both being at least often used. I suspected 'indices' is a Latinized plural used by people to look educated, and it appears to be. My only disagreement with Gemini is that I programmed for almost 40 years in a variety of systems and I've never seen 'indices' used in documenting computer language array functions, always 'indexes'.
DeleteOn one of the many "improvement programs" foisted on us at work, we were all required to identify at least one index, that we would track to demonstrate continuous improvement. So, there were multiple indices, and we had a lot of talk about our various indices. That annoyed me, but not as much as as the guy who, no matter how many times I corrected him, kept talking about his indicee.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I'm just noticing this sort of thing more and more, but I'm noticing this sort of thing more and more. Insects have antennae, wireless mic receivers have antennas. Formulae preferred in physics and chemistry. No-one goes to visit the sphinges anymore.
ReplyDeleteThe rule used to be whether a word had entered English from another language (usually Latin) with its plural alongside or whether it didn't get pluralised until at least a century later. With the former, it took the Latin plural; with the latter, it took the English plural. Yet I think that was just an attempt to systemetise something that was always a bit random to begin with. If something just sorta sounds silly, like alumnas, then the better-sounding alumnae wins out, regardless of when its first use is recorded.
ReplyDeleteSometimes language just does stuff which looks irrational, but everyone just overlooks it. Purists will say "It is I" in English but not even notice that "C'est moi" is fine in elegant French.