AA Meeting

[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?

[Audiendus]

. . . what common noun has
a plural (archaic) with which it
shares no letters?

cow > kine?

[brogine]

Well done. That would be the one,
and probably the only one.

[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.

[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.

[Slava]

Does ogress count?

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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.

[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.

[Slava]

Cannola, at least according to etymonline.

[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?

[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.

[Audiendus]

https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=cannoli

from Italian cannoli, plural of cannola, literally "small tube,"

According to Wiktionary, the singular is either cannolo (Italian) or cannolu (Sicilian).