Naming

The earliest known publication of the term mouse as a computer pointing tool is in Bill English's 1965 publication "Computer-Aided Display Control".[1] The net Oxford Dictionaries entry for mouse states the plural for the little rodent is mice, while the plural for the little computer connected tool is either mice or mouses. However, in the use section of the entry it states that the more common plural is mice, & that the first recorded use of the term in the plural is mice as well[2] (though it cites a 1984 use of mice when there were actually several earlier ones, such as J. C. R. Licklider's "The Computer as a Communication Device" of 1968[3]). According to the fifth edition of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language the plural can be either "mouses" or "mice"