stewardii

[Kevin Troy]

A humorous vignette on this topic:

Years ago, I used to play Scrabble at a club in midtown Manhattan.  I
tried to play VIRII as a plural for "virus" (I had three I's on my
rack and was grasping for straws.)  My opponent challenged my play.
The judge, who was a notoriously good Scrabble player, came over to
our table.

JUDGE:  No, that's no good.
ME:  What?  Aren't you even going to check it in the dictionary?
JUDGE (snorts):  I think know all the double-eye endings.

That was when I realized that I would never be a notoriously good
Scrabble player.

We now return to your regularly-scheduled p-list.

> Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2009 12:09:58 -0500
> From: Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>
>
> 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.