Hello Dr. Ink,
As a young journalist (I’m a junior print journalism major at Hampton University), I read your column often and now I finally have something to ask you. Forgive me if you’ve answered it already, but in reference to computers, what is the plural form of a mouse? Is it computer mice or computer mouses? It feels so stupid to say mice, but that is the plural form of the little rodent. What do you think, mouses or mice?
Sincerely,
Talia Buford
Answer:
When he was a little ink spot, Dr. Ink loved watching cartoons on television. He and his brother used to memorize the gags and voices from the Hanna-Barbera creations, especially Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, and Augie Doggie (and Doggie Daddy), and Huckleberry Hound.
In one cartoon, a particularly oily cat named Jinx battled two cartoon rodents named Pixie and Dixie. When they would get the best of him, as they almost always did, he would shout in frustration: “I hate those meeces to pieces!”
So Doc would like to nominate “meeces” as a possible candidate for the plural form of the computer mouse.
Now we have three options: mouses, mice, and meeces.
Doc consulted the revised and updated edition of “Wired Style: Principles of English Usage in the Digital Age.” Written by Constance Hale and Jessie Scanlon, the book contains a glossary of techie neologisms. Here’s what they offer on “mouse”:
“Invented in 1964 by Douglas Engelbart, the mouse remains the most common computer navigational device. If you want to see copy editors at their best (er, worst?), poll them on the plural of mouse. Most avoid it as if it were a diseased rodent. … While some favor continuing the mousy metaphor into the plural with ‘mice,’ … others argue that the computer appendage is distinguished from the animal and should follow the most common method of pluralization (adding –s or es) … just as louse become louses when it defines a group of cranky editors. Put us among the louses; we prefer mouses.”
If Doc and Jinx the Cat can’t have meeces, he, too, will go with mouses.
