Stewardii

[Dave Monroe]

stewardii {IV, Ch. 6, p. 71)


In the Pynchon-narrated promo video for Inherent Vice, Pynchon sez:

"stewardesses or, more correctly I guess, stewardii"
The comedian Shelley Berman (b. 1926), in his 1960s nightclub act,
puzzled over "incongruities in the English language":

"I just want to say just a few words about stewardii. They have... (he
is interrupted by crowd shreik of laughter) Stewardii is plural for
Stewardess. Uh...I think there are many incongruities in the English
language as far as plurals are concerned. For example, it seems to me
that the plural for Yo-yo should be Yo-yi. How about, one sheriff;
several sheriffim. Um...one goof; a group of geef; uh...one Kleenex,
several Kleenices; one Blouse, two Blice ........Two Jackii."
This is likely what Pynchon is riffing on, as "stewardii" is not a
real word, rather it's a joke on Latin plurals, where nouns ending in
"ius" are pluralized "-ii", eg radius/radii.

http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_6#Page_71

Hot off the Wiki, courtesy of Tim "Hyperarts" Ware.  Thanks, Tim!