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CERN Animal Shelter for Computer Mice (2011)

(computer-animal-shelter.web.cern.ch)
348 points EbNar | 4 comments | | HN request time: 0.721s | source
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keiferski ◴[] No.45288950[source]
In high school twenty years ago, my IT class teacher told me that technically speaking, a collection of computer mice of different styles (that is, not all the same brand/shape/color/etc.) are actually called mouses, not mice. I always thought he was joking, but apparently it is/was considered correct at some point:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_mouse#Etymology

replies(2): >>45289317 #>>45294072 #
1. opminion ◴[] No.45289317[source]
Isn't it similar to fish vs fishes?
replies(2): >>45290120 #>>45290939 #
2. serpent ◴[] No.45290120[source]
Or schemata/schemas, indices/indexes…?
replies(1): >>45295000 #
3. ◴[] No.45290939[source]
4. opminion ◴[] No.45295000[source]
Mice/mouses and fish/fishes are distinguished by whether they are homogeneous sets or not.