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I often hear a similar mistake - "vertice" for "vertex". I think you do give too much credit by hypothesizing a borrowing from French. They're just treating "indices" or "vertices" as an English plural and back-forming a singular. By the way, the pronunciation of "indice" in French is closer to "ann-deese" than "on-deese".
Well, Ken, I just want you to know that I thought of you yesterday when I was giving a talk in front of a large group of attorneys. At one point, I alluded to the obitofrontal cortex of the brain, then heard myself blurt, "In people whose orbitofrontal cortices have been damaged -- oops, is it cortexes or cortices?" and then stumbled a bit, realizing I didn't know. So thanks a lot, Ken! 🙂
Looks like it can be either one. And John, I agree it's quite possible that it's just a natural formation by analogy.
I mean to post this before: a long look at redices and indices, which is a bit far afield of our topic but still interesting.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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