From: hougen@uirvlj.csl.uiuc.edu (Darrell Roy Hougen)
Newsgroups: sci.research.careers
Subject: Re: Vita or Vitae?
Date: 8 Jan 1993 22:53:28 GMT
Organization: Center for Reliable and High-Performance Computing, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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elm@cs.berkeley.edu (ethan miller) writes:

% In article <1ikrqrINNnff@roundup.crhc.uiuc.edu> hougen@focus.csl.uiuc.edu (Darrell Roy Hougen) writes:
% =>	(1) submit curriculum vitae
% =>	(2) submit a curriculum vitae
% =>	(3) submit a curriculum vita
% =>	(4) submit curricula vitae

% As far as I know, (2) and (4) are reasonable possibilities.  (3) is
% definitely out.  In Latin, "vitae" is indeed the plural of "vita," but
% it's also the genitive form (often used as a possessive).  (2) would
% mean a curriculum of life, and that's probably the right one.  (4)
% would be right if "curriculum" were supposed to be plural.

Actually, I checked my dictionary (Webster's) again and it says:

	vi.ta \'vi-t-*, 'we--.ta:\ \'vi-t-e-, 'vi--.te-, 'we--.ti-\ n
	suffix or vi.tae [L, lit., life] pl  : a brief autobiographical 
	sketch (as in a doctoral thesis)

Is that consistent with what you said?  To me this means that "a vita"
is "a brief autobiographical sketch" and that vitae means more than
one "brief autobiographical sketch".

A check the Oxford English Dictionary reveals the following:

    2 a. L. v ta life. A biography, the history of a life; spec. = curri-
  culum vit s.v.  CURRICULUM.
    1949 WYNDHAM LEWIS Let. 3 Sept. (1963) 505 You ought to cut out
  cleanly and implacably the vita material from this typescript. 1960
  Encounter Mar. 82/2 Clifton Fadiman..whose credentials include..a vita
  which concludes as follows:..master of ceremonies on the popular radio
  programme Information Please, and on the television show This is Show
  Business. 1974 H. L. FOSTER Ribbin', Jivin', & Playin' Dozens i. 18 As
  far as children and their schools are concerned, the reports were simply
  another exercise for academicians to contribute, primarily, as a source
  for an additional listing on a vita or a source for citations for future
  papers, lectures, books, and speeches. 1979 Amer. Speech LIV. 257 All
  these observations..are summarized in the vitas of the informants.

This would imply that one should say a curriculum vit or perhaps a
curriculum vita.  However, if we check under "curriculum" we get:

  curriculum (k&schwa.'rIkjUl&schwa.m). Pl. -ula.  [L., = course, career
  (lit. and fig.): see above.] A course; spec. a regular course of study
  or training, as at a school or university.  (The recognized term in the
  Scottish Univerities.) curriculum vit, the course of one's life; a brief
  account of one's career.
    1633 Munimenta Univ. Glasg. (1854) III. 379 Finito anni curriculo dis-
  cessurum. 1643 Munimenta Univ. Glasg. II. 317 Curriculum quinque
  annorum. 1824 J. RUSSELL Tour Germ. (1828) I. iii.  134 When the [Ger-
  man] student has finished his curriculum, and leaves the university.
  1829 Glasg. Univ. Cal. 39 The curriculum of students who mean to take
  degrees in Surgery to be three years. 1870 ROLLESTON Anim. Life Introd.
  84 The completion of the entire curriculum of metamorphosis. 1888 BURGON
  Lives 12 Gd. Men II. ix. 201 Butler's immortal Work has..been elbowed
  out from the Oxford curriculum.1902 New Internat. Encycl. III. 21/2
  Anciently biography was more of a mere curriculum vit than it is now.
  1939 M. INNES Stop Press II. iv. 269, I don't know much about Benton's
  curriculum vit... He must have an orthodox..academic record. 1941
  KOESTLER Scum of Earth 59 His superiors..knew all about my professional
  travels from the curriculum vitae in their files, written by myself.
  1954 New Yorker 25 Dec. 18/2 As for Mr. Lapidus's curriculum vitae, he
  was born in Russia fifty-two years ago, grew up in Brooklyn, graduated
  from the Columbia School of Architecture in 1927, and took a job with
  the well-known firm of Warren & Wetmore. 1971 Time 22 Mar. 14/2 Eddie's
  curriculum vitae..has been served up in plentiful quantity in the press.

Again, this would imply that one should say a 'curriculum vit'.
However, one should also say my 'curriculum vitae'.  So, you would be
right if the vita was possessed by some person.  

So, it sounds like one could say:

	submit a vita
	submit a curriculum vit
	submit your curriculum vitae

Is this accurate?

Darrell R. Hougen
Newsgroups: sci.research.careers