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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!bbnccv!keesan
From: keesan@bbnccv.UUCP (Morris M. Keesan)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Why the vax, but not the Unix??
Message-ID: <666@bbnccv.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Jun-85 17:28:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: bbnccv.666
Posted: Mon Jun 10 17:28:10 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Jun-85 05:26:30 EDT
References: <27400001@gypsy.UUCP> <546@hou2b.UUCP> <561@umd5.UUCP>
Reply-To: keesan@bbnccv.UUCP (Morris M. Keesan)
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 14
Keywords: VAXen

In article <561@umd5.UUCP> zben@umd5.UUCP (Ben Cranston) writes:
>Note also that to collectively refer to the many VAX computers out there
>a lot of people use the coined term "VAXEN", probably a derivative of
>"vixen" or something.  There is probably some language that has contributed
>to English that uses a suffix "en" to denote a plural, and subconscious
>memory supplies the usage.

VAXen is probably more akin to "oxen" then "vixen", as far as derivation.
The "en" suffix is a German pluralization, which has leaked over into English
in words such as "oxen".
-- 
Morris M. Keesan
keesan@bbn-unix.ARPA
{decvax,ihnp4,etc.}!bbncca!keesan