martinus

Formed by analyzing the -i of martini as the plural form of Latin -us.

martinus (plural martini) (hypercorrect, humorous)

1. Alternative form of martini
   • 1959, Coronet, volume 45, page 113:

     On their first appearance in May, the Canadian clowns did a 14-minute parody of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar called Rinse the Blood Of My Toga. Wayne, draped in a toga, sidled up to an ancient Roman bistro and said, “Let me have a Martinus.” Shuster, togaed as a bartender, corrected him, “You mean Martini.” Wayne snapped back, “If I want two, I’ll ask for them.” / Overnight, New York bars were calling a single Martini a “Martinus.” And all over the U.S., people were echoing the line of Caesar’s wife, “I told him. I said, ‘Julie, don’t go!’”

   • 1959, The Reader’s Digest, volume 75, page 32:

     An intellectual type we know stopped in at a bar the other day and asked for a martinus. “Don’t you mean a martini?” asked the bartender. Our egghead looked at him coldly. “If I had wanted two,” he said, “I would have asked for them.”

   • 1960, “Latin Scholar”, in The International Teamster, page 32:

     A Harvard freshman stepped into a New York bar and said, “One dry martinus.” / The bartender grinned. “I guess you mean a dry martini, don’t you?” / The freshman shook his head. “If I wanted more than one,” he cracked, “I would have asked for them.”

   • 2000 December 21, Peter Moylan, “Re: Potatoe^[sic] Pie Recipe”, in alt.usage.english (Usenet), message-ID <slrn942rpf.5c.root@EEPJM.newcastle.edu.au>:

     I cheated on the zucchino. Normally I would say zucchini, but I couldn't bring myself to write that when there was only one of them. (Gimme a martinus!) I should have added, by the way, that this is the vegetable that's called a courgette in England.

   • 2001 November 24, Hactar, “Re: Self-Organizing Macaroni”, in alt.fan.cecil-adams (Usenet), message-ID <5i80s7-631.ln1@pc.home>:

     > Wouldn't "macaroni" already be plural? One macaronus, many macaroni. / Dunno. I'll have a martinus and think about it.

   • 2002 March 4, John Wester [Group W], “Re: Notice!”, in borland.public.off-topic (Usenet), message-ID <MPG.16ed3f8e71092a55989aa7@forums.borland.com>:

     > ...it's amore! Thank, you, thank you very much. I'll be at the Palace all / > week. Buy that man in the front a martini! / >  / > EdB / Thanks, but I'll only have one, that'd be a martinus then, painfully dry.

   • 2003 January 24, blake murphy, “Re: Someone who collected strange recipes....”, in rec.food.cooking (Usenet), message-ID <e2523vcmell4tjmghk0im6abd6dqkq8s2a@4ax.com>:

     >That doesn't sound all that bad, but then anything / >would be an inprovement^[sic] on a martini. But you'd have / >to put enough blueberries in it to kill the taste of / >the gin. / >Kate / i must confess i'm not a martinus drinker either.

   • 2006 July 30, Ærchie, “Re: The ultimate cross over...”, in alt.fan.goons (Usenet), message-ID <dprpc2dp2fprqerd3pjs569jn37dhqj310@4ax.com>:

     If you send me a photograph of a snifter of your brandy, I'll photoshop it into a martinus with a marischino^[sic]-cherry-onna-stick and send it on to Princess O.

• Sturmian, Turanism, naturism