At work, of course, talking about how to pronounce various Latin-derived words (including amicus, some in the ah-mi'-cus camp, while I am in the aym'-i-cus camp) we started talking about "uteruses" versus "uteri". One of the women said it was more or less a moot point, since no one had more than one uterus. First, we may want to refer to more than one person's uterus (the uteri of the women...), and, more interestingly, there are people with more than one uterus.
It's called Didelphys Uterus. It carries risks for pregnancy, although most people who have it don't know about it until they experience fertility problems. It's easy enough to diagnose with an ultrasound, it looks like. Here's a picture that I can't understand, and another one that I also can't understand. And this crazy story about triplets! I wish I was a doctor, not a lawyer (okay, an almost-lawyer).
my fear about pointing this out is that in the next installment of the repubevangelical crusade to foster snowflake adoption, they will require women with this anomaly to serve as surrogate in order to increase the chances she produces a litter for the masses.
Posted by: Ol Cranky | August 09, 2005 at 01:59 PM
I had that same issue with the word "clitoris" last year, and the same point was brought up that "nobody had more than one clitoris." (I don't know if there's a medical anomaly similar to the multiple-uterus one, but damn, if there was....)
But anyway. I eventually found out that the grammatically correct term for more than one clitoris is "clitorides," although in the evolution/regression of the English language, "clitorises" has become acceptable.
Also, in male anatomy, the correct terminology for more than one penis is "penes," although the same rule as to the regression of the English language applies as well, and "penises" is accepted now too.
Posted by: Jen | August 15, 2005 at 01:19 AM
When they performed my hysterectomy, I actually had 3 uterus's, according to the physician. He said they were stacked like Russian tea boxes, thus giving me the infertility problems. But you can tell the co-worker that yes, some people have more than 1.
Posted by: Jennifer Vogt | November 16, 2007 at 11:55 AM
Funny, because I just got a paper to translate where the guy studied sheep uteri and I wasn't sure whether it was uteruses or uteri. Thanks for clearing it up! :)
Posted by: Andrea | December 04, 2008 at 12:20 PM
Ol Cranky, "they will require women with this anomaly to serve as surrogate in order to increase the chances she produces a litter for the masses", this won't happen because having uteri creates infertility issues.
Posted by: Amy | April 13, 2009 at 02:23 PM