"Edward Diener" <eddielee@tropicsoft.com> wrote in message news:c4alki$cnj$1@sea.gmane.org...
David B. Held wrote:
Indexes: According to the American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition, as channeled by www.dictionary.com, "indexes" is preferred to "indices".
My dictionary mentions both,
In the same order as the AHD, I presume?
but I have never heard an educated person in my life use the word "indexes" as a plural for index rather than the word "indices".
Maybe all the educated people you know speak Latin. ;) My experience is just the opposite. Usually, when I hear someone say "indices", they come across as a bit pretentious.
And I don't particularly care what the Google hit rates are since a great many people are poorly educated.
You sound like a dyed-in-the-wool prescriptive grammarian. ;> For us descriptivists, grammar is a democracy, so majority rules. Dave --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.581 / Virus Database: 368 - Release Date: 2/9/2004