it, when the singular, being
less capable of modification, would have failed to do so; thus when
Holland writes 'phalanges', 'bisontes', 'ideae', it is clear that
'phalanx', 'bison', 'idea', were still Greek words for him; as 'dogma'
was for Hammond, when he made its plural not 'dogmas', but 'dogmata'{52};
and when Spenser uses 'heroes' as a trisyllable, it plainly is not yet
thoroughly English for him{53}. 'Cento' is not English, but a Latin word
used in English, so long as it makes its plural not 'centos', but
'centones', as in the old anonymous translation of Augustin's _City of
God_{54}; and 'specimen', while it makes its plural 'specimina' (Howe).
Pope making, as he does, 'satellites' a quadrisyllable in the line

"Why Jove's _satellites_ are less than Jove",

must have felt that he was still dealing with it as Latin; just as
'terminus', a word which the necessities of railways have introduced
among us, will not be truly naturalized till we use 'terminuses', and
not 'termini' for its plural; nor 'phenomenon', till we have renounced
'phenomena'. Sometimes it has been found convenient to retain both
plurals, that formed according to the laws of the classical language,
and that formed according to the laws of our own, only employing them in
different senses; thus is it with 'indices' and 'indexes', 'genii' and
'geniuses'.

The same process has gone on with words from other languages, as from
the Italian and the Spanish; thus 'bandetto' (Shakespeare), 'bandito'
(Jeremy Taylor), becomes 'bandit'; 'ruffiano' (Coryat) 'ruffian';
'concerto', 'concert'; 'busto' (Lord Chesterfield) 'bust'; 'caricatura'
(Sir Thomas Browne) 'caricature'; 'princessa' (Hacket) 'princess';
'scaramucha' (Dryden) 'scaramouch'; 'pedanteria' (Sidney) 'pedantry';
'impresa' 'impress'; 'caprichio' (Shakespeare) becomes first 'caprich'
(Butler), then 'caprice'; 'duello' (Shakespeare) 'duel'; 'alligarta'
(Ben Jonson), 'alligator'; 'parroquito' (Webster) 'parroquet'; 'scalada'
(Heylin) or 'escalado' (Holland) 'escalade'; 'granada' (Hacket)
'grenade'; 'parada' (J. Taylor) 'parade'; 'emboscado' (Holland)
'stoccado', 'barricado', 'renegado', 'hurricano' (all in Shakespeare),
'brocado' (Hackluyt), 'palissado' (Howell), drop their foreign
terminations, and severally become 'ambuscade', 'stockade', 'barricade',
'renegade', 'hurricane', 'brocade', 'palisade'; 'croisado' in like
manner (Bacon) becomes first 'croisade' (Jortin), and then 'crusade';
'quinaqu