What is the Plural of Status, and How Do You Pluralize a Status Update in Facebook?

Facebook has taken a word that was once used only in specific circumstances and made it a commonplace term in every conversation with the advent of the ever-popular "status update." This has led to confusion among the Internet community as to how to use the word status in casual conversation in the plural form.

The most common cop-out encountered by people who do not know how to correctly pluralize "status" when referring to Facebook is to simply pluralize the entire term into "status updates." This, however, is like putting a small Band-Aid on a severed head. At some point you will want to pluralize the word "status" itself, and if you have not found out the answer to this question, you are liable to end up making a fool of yourself (though many would never notice).

Consider the options:

Stati: The most common plural form of "status" I have heard is "stati." This thinking has probably come from the pluralizing of the word "alumnus" as alumni" or of "cactus" as "cacti," among others. Go ahead and knock this form out of the running since the word "stati" can be found in no dictionary. "Stati" is NOT an acceptable form for the plural of "status."

States: Many have attempted to use the plural of the word "state," "states" as a solution to pluralize status. "Status" and "state" can be synonyms, however they remain two separate words with two separate forms of conjugation. "States" is not an acceptable plural form for the word "status" on Facebook or otherwise.

Status: This form replaces the short "u" sound with a long "U" as in the word "tune" or "dune." The idea that this could be an acceptable form of pluralizing "status" originates from Latin, as in the word "datum," using the fourth declension conjugation. This form is found in the Oxford English Dictionary, however the reference is to the Latin form of the word, and not the English form. In the English language, "status" is not an acceptable pluralization of the singular "status," referring to Facebook status updates or not.

Statuses: The only remaining potential plural form of "status" is "statuses." Many people shy away from the word because it is sometimes awkward to say, however general discomfort with a word does not invalidate it as a true conjugation of the word.

Conclusion
When a person has updated the Facebook status update multiple times, they have posted multiple "statuses," not "stati," "states," or "status." "Statuses" is the correct English conjugation of the singular "status," and will remain so until the English language chooses to evolve it.

However, language is always evolving, and the information revolution known as the Internet is changing language faster than the dictionaries can keep up. Who knows, in five years we may be referring to Facebook "statas" rather than all of these other options.