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AA Meeting
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2024 1:23 am
by brogine
I have come up with over thirty place names
(as rendered in English) - and picked up a few more
in a gazetteer - beginning and ending with A.
You wanna make somethin’ of it?
I also know a like number of women’s names with
L(s) followed by N(s), with vowels here and there.
(Admittedly, some are cultural or idiosyncratic
variations.)
‘So it shouldn’t be a total loss . . . ’
. . . what common noun has
a plural (archaic) with which it
shares no letters?
Re: AA Meeting
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2024 11:18 am
by Audiendus
. . . what common noun has
a plural (archaic) with which it
shares no letters?
cow > kine?
Re: AA Meeting
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2024 12:38 pm
by brogine
Well done. That would be the one,
and probably the only one.
Re: AA Meeting
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2024 7:01 pm
by Slava
Time to start working on the BB list?
It's probably already been done, but a list of words that are their own plural (fish, deer, sheep, etc.) might be fun, too.
Re: AA Meeting
Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2024 10:41 pm
by brogine
I have such a list, in a 1979 print dictionary. Actually, three lists, depending on this or that.
But how’s this for an equine of a similar hue? Words for which the singular is the same as the plural. Lemme explain. I’m thinking - not without a degree of irritation - of cases where the singular seems to have disappeared. Alga, bacterium, and criterion have all become fossils, if you will.
But I like lists. Recently, I tried to think of as many ‘-gress’ words I could. You know, ingress, egress, etc.
Re: AA Meeting
Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2024 10:47 pm
by Slava
Does ogress count?
Re: AA Meeting
Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2024 11:18 pm
by brogine
Ya big silly!
I was going to come back, anyway. I should have said two lists, the third being of words with plurals only for different types. coffee, wheat, etc. There’s a word for that kind of noun . . . .
Now I think of it, aren’t there also words which are plural only in a non-literal sense?
Waters, skies.
Re: AA Meeting
Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2024 11:31 pm
by Audiendus
Alga, bacterium, and criterion have all become fossils, if you will.
In the UK at least, these are still the only correct singular forms. The use of
criteria as singular is a common error, but an error nonetheless.
Re: AA Meeting
Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2024 5:01 pm
by brogine
Another interesting case is that of data and media.
The singular forms aren’t often required, but the plural quite
often are heard with the singular verb!
Re: AA Meeting
Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2024 5:31 pm
by Slava
Another interesting case is that of data and media.
The singular forms aren’t often required, but the plural quite
often are heard with the singular verb!
Add to that
apocrypha, which doesn't even have a singular so far as I know.
Re: AA Meeting
Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2024 5:17 pm
by brogine
There are also graffiti and paparazzi, both with legit singulars.
Cannoli sounds off, using it as single (guess l’ll have to have two . . .),
perhaps because we’re so used to a final i indicating the plural.
There doesn’t seem to be a singular form.
Re: AA Meeting
Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2024 5:24 pm
by Slava
Cannola, at least according to etymonline.
Re: AA Meeting
Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2024 7:25 pm
by brogine
I’ve never used that - I get the OED through my library system.
Just looked at etymonline.com and I don’t see that.
Is there another version?
Re: AA Meeting
Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2024 8:03 pm
by Slava
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=cannoli
from Italian cannoli, plural of cannola, literally "small tube,"
Don't we usually get 2 or 3 in an order, thus explaining the use of the plural? I don't remember the last time I even saw one, so I'm not so sure.
Re: AA Meeting
Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2024 10:38 pm
by Audiendus
According to Wiktionary, the singular is either
cannolo (Italian) or
cannolu (Sicilian).