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Path: utzoo!dciem!mmt
From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Why the vax, but not the Unix??
Message-ID: <1590@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 22-Jun-85 14:05:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: dciem.1590
Posted: Sat Jun 22 14:05:52 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 22-Jun-85 16:09:12 EDT
References: <27400001@gypsy.UUCP> <546@hou2b.UUCP> <umd5.561>
Reply-To: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 19
Summary: 


>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 ploural, and subconscious
>memory supplies the usage.  In any case, we say "on vaxen" rather than 
>"on THE vaxen".

In the early days of the Vax, the plural was "Vaxes".  The first time I
heard "Vaxen", it was used as a deliberate joke, but it sounded OK, and
after a while most people (including me) began to use it without the
joking overtone.  In the not so distant past, lots of English words took
"n" or "en" in the plural (shoe -> shoon, for example).  German normally
does so.
-- 

Martin Taylor
{allegra,linus,ihnp4,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt
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