Buses or Busses?

[TedEH]

Since it's a Friday, and we're not bickering enough - this came up at work: do you spell it "buses" or "busses"?

 

[wheresthefbomb]

Buseys

 

[jaxadam]

bussecks

 

[tedtan]

I’ve generally seen “buses” used in North America and “busses” used in the UK, though I don’t know if there is a reason for this or if it is just coincidence.

 

[LiveOVErdrive]

I've always used "buses" for vroom vroom buses and "busses" for beep boop busses

 

[BlackMastodon]

Busses.

I just "typed" that in my phone with swipe texting and it gave me 2 s's.
But if I were to type it out myself I'm positive I would go with buses.

This doesn't help, but just goes to show you that you can't trust the machines.

 

[CanserDYI]

I had zero idea "buses" was even a thing and people who use it at this point are disgusting and swine-like.

My reason? Look at that word. It looks like it should be read "b-yuse-ez". Lunacy.

 

[SalsaWood]

I think the youngins say bussin'.

 

[T_Gobbs]

This is a pg13 forum dude. You can’t talk about bussy here.

 

[TedEH]

Well, now that we've settled that one, how about "plugin" vs "plug-in"?

 

[T_Gobbs]

Well, now that we've settled that one, how about "plugin" vs "plug-in"?

Absolutely fucking not.

 

[LiveOVErdrive]

Well, now that we've settled that one, how about "plugin" vs "plug-in"?

That hyphen can buzz off and go hang out with the one from Spiderman.

 

[TedEH]

So what you're saying is that we love hyphens and should be spelling it "bus-sus"?

 

[bostjan]

I never understood how it's not "busses," just like how some people spell more than one gas as "gases," my brain reads it "byoosis"/"gaysis."

Hyphens and dashes never made clear sense to me anyway.

And hats off to my English teachers, who had taken so much time to make sure we learned octopi and cacti, just for people to decide that those plurals were dumb.

 

[Seabeast2000]

I've always used "buses" for vroom vroom buses and "busses" for beep boop busses

Yes, City BUS, Electrical BUSS, like the big slabs of copper behind a ckt breaker row. But who knows.

 

[SalsaWood]

What about "Intresting" vs "Interesting" pronunciation? 90% of people pronounce it as "Intresting".

Also, "fuller" does not mean what people think it means. "More full", as idiotic as it sounds, is actually correct unless you're processing wool.

 

[profwoot]

bus as in school bus and bus as in master bus are both shortened from "omnibus", which is latin for "all". So any additional s would be used only to distinguish the two concepts. I haven't found that to be an issue, so might as well save a superfluous letter.

 

[Seabeast2000]

bus as in school bus and bus as in master bus are both shortened from "omnibus", which is latin for "all". So any additional s would be used only to distinguish the two concepts. I haven't found that to be an issue, so might as well save a superfluous letter.

yeah, I think its tech shorthand "buss" i have seen written down on plans and schematics many times.

There's a guy from Alaska or maybe it is the guy from South Dakota that has savant language strength and I'm waiting for his strafing run on this. Let's see if he shows up.

 

[tedtan]

And hats off to my English teachers, who had taken so much time to make sure we learned octopi and cacti, just for people to decide that those plurals were dumb.

What about the people over on the Paul Reed Smith forum that refer to multiple PRS guitars as “PRSi”?

90% of people pronounce it as "Intresting".

I’m not sure of the percentage, but those people are wrong.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

That hyphen can buzz off and go hang out with the one from Spiderman.

spi-derman

yeah, I think its tech shorthand "buss" i have seen written down on plans and schematics many times.

There's a guy from Alaska or maybe it is the guy from South Dakota that has savant language strength and I'm waiting for his strafing run on this. Let's see if he shows up.

I have a linguistics degree, but I think you're thinking of @bostjan, he's much more on point with the historical linguistics, I'm better with broader theoretical stuff.

My take here is that linguistics tries to describe how language is used, not what is "correct," so all of these forms that people are giving are "correct" in that they successfully communicate what the person using them is trying to communicate. Any perception we have of wrongness is more sociocultural/geographical.

What about "Intresting" vs "Interesting" pronunciation? 90% of people pronounce it as "Intresting".

Also, "fuller" does not mean what people think it means. "More full", as idiotic as it sounds, is actually correct unless you're processing wool.

I can't remember exactly what it's called, but "intresting"/"intersting" this is a form of regular sound change where "extraneous" vowels get dropped. The intersting thing about sound changes is that many of them are conditioned in part by our physiology, so certain constructions tend to change in certain predictable ways across human language in general.

In this case, it's probably just a lot easier/smoother to say "intresting." All languages have examples of similar historical sound changes that are now codified as "correct" forms, though I'm drawing a blank on good examples right now.

My historical linguistics classes are fully ten years behind me at this point, but here's a great article about metanalysis, another form of sound change, with some nifty examples and mythbusting to boot:*

'A norange' - the meaning and origin of this phrase

The meaning and origin of the phrase 'A norange'.

www.phrases.org.uk

*incidentally, I looked this article up because my historical linguistics professor introduced the "a norange" myth to us as a factual example of metanalysis. I have shared it many times since before learning today that it's bunk. he's a great professor but it just goes to shows.....