What's the plural of computer mouse?

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28 Feb 2016, 6:47 am

^

Hand-operated electronic devices that control the coordinates of cursors on your computer screen as you move them around on pads for ambi-brained people.

naturalplastic
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28 Feb 2016, 8:42 am

cathylynn wrote:

http://painintheenglish.com/case/534 - mouse devices

What a cute site.

I did not know that computer "mouse" was an acronym. Assumed that they called them that because they look like, and are about the same size as, the actual rodents.

Spiderpig
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28 Feb 2016, 1:58 pm

It doesn't seem very clear that it originated as an acronym, rather than being later made a backronym.

Now I think of it, this may be the reason Microsoft insisted a computer mouse was to be called by its English name (spelled mouse; I have no idea how you were supposed to pronounce it) in Spanish from Spain, at least a few years ago (though, for all I know, it may continue to do it to this day). In contrast, they did translate it as ratón into Latin American Spanish.

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auntblabby
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28 Feb 2016, 3:13 pm

"backronym" - that's a new one on me

naturalplastic
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01 Mar 2016, 11:47 am

Spiderpig wrote:

Yeah, in the article online it said it stood for "manual operator utilized...[sumpin' or other]" .

But that suspicion did cross my mind: that they were originally given the name "mouse" after the rodent they look like , and then later someone afterward concocted the acronym to fit the word. But the article said the acronym came first. So I dunno.

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