Busses and bussing

Topics/tags: Language, short

What’s the plural of bus? To most people, it’s buses. To a few, it seems to be busses.

What’s the plural of buss? The only option seems to be busses. For clarity, we should reserve busses for this plural.

Is the choice significant? Not really [1]. Nonetheless, I find that I want to correct those who use busses or bussing when they refer to big vehicles rather than the act of affection.

In this matter, as in so many others, I was clearly influenced by my mother, who, if I recall correctly, concluded one of her poems I’m pro bussing.

[1] I don’t even know what the p-value would be.

Version 1.0 of 2018-09-14.