Dear Colleagues:

Before my school inscribes a phrase (literally to be set in stone) onto our new bell tower, they want to check the plural form of "Chair pro tempore."

According to general convention of how to form plural with titles, I would assume the major term/noun should receive the pluralization marker (thus, "chairs pro tempore"), as done with "Queens of England" or "mothers-in-law".

But the Latin phrase muddles the issue.   Looking at various documents on the web and how they create the plurals of "pro tempore," I'm seeing far more uses of "chair pro tempores" (not to mention a handful of "chairs pros tempore").

Does anyone have any insight on this matter?  I don't think it's so much a matter of Latin rules as it is a matter of conventions for English terms that hijack Latin. The last time I dealt with such a construction and question, I recommended we the follow the convention that most colleges follow (I've forgotten the term in question before).  

Larry

Larry Beason
Associate Professor & Composition Director
Dept. of English, 240 HUMB
Univ. of South Alabama
Mobile AL 36688
(251) 460-7861

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