One of my favorite comedians, Shelley Berman, used to do a bit where he describes plurals which he feels ought to exist in the English language. To wit:
stewardess; stewardi (the bit comes as a digression from air travel and airline stewardi)
yo-yo; yo-yi
One goof; a group of geef.
One sheriff; several sheriffim. (cf. seraph, seraphim)
One blouse; two blice.
One Kleenex; several Kleenices. (cf. index, indices)
Two jacki.
I thought we could have some fun coming up with a few more. (Bonus points if it's road-related!)
Obviously, the plural for "Smurf" should be "Smurves", duh. And I'm partial to the concept of compound plurals, as in: One buttock; one pair of buttocks; several pair of buttoces.
Any other ideas? :colorful:
One ISIS, two ISES (crisis -> crises)
One taxi, two taxis, three or more taxes (pronounced the same as "taxis"). (axis -> axes)
One house, two hice
One crayon, eight craya (criterion -> criteria)
One mongoose, two mongeese
One moose, two meese
One Stegosaurus, two Stegosauri
One Toys-R-Us, Two Toys-R-I
One safe, two saves (knife -> knives)
One human, two humen
One Oman, two Omen
Quote from: 1 on October 05, 2015, 05:34:14 AM
One Toys-R-Us, Two Toys-R-I
Talk about your paradox. :-D
(obroads: One 3dus, two 3di? :spin: )
We have good friends with the last name Harcus. Everyone now calls them the Harci. Actually, now that they have children, we call them the Harciii (started when they only had one child, but never upgrade to Harciv or Harciiii).
One penis, two penes ('Penes' being the correct plural in Spanish BTW).
One Tyrannosaurus Rex, two Tyrannosauri Rices :spin:.
Quote from: 1 on October 05, 2015, 05:34:14 AM
One ISIS, two ISES (crisis -> crises)
I thought the plural for ISIS would be IVETTE. [/hurricane]
Quote from: empirestate on October 05, 2015, 08:14:13 AM
(obroads: One 3dus, two 3di? :spin: )
I was thinking about that.
Going the other way:
Half of a pair of dice is a douse.
One component of a fence is a fent. (B. Kliban's idea, not mine)
Pea is a back-formation from pease (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pea#Etymology)
If Texas seceded and split into five republics, Houston or Dallas would be part of the largest Texa.
pan -> pen :pan:
Quote from: kurumi on October 05, 2015, 11:42:13 AM
Going the other way:
Half of a pair of dice is a douse.
One component of a fence is a fent. (B. Kliban's idea, not mine)
Pea is a back-formation from pease (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pea#Etymology)
If Texas seceded and split into five republics, Houston or Dallas would be part of the largest Texa.
Oo, recursive plurals! (Plurae?) With a lexicon like that, you could be in the fashion industry. Anybody wanna buy a yoga pant or capri short?
(Is die/dice/douse a recursive compound plural then??)
Then you have false plurae such as person/people and, of course, Stetson/steeple.
iPhone
Quote from: kurumi on October 05, 2015, 11:42:13 AM
Going the other way:
Half of a pair of dice is a douse.
One component of a fence is a fent. (B. Kliban's idea, not mine)
Pea is a back-formation from pease (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pea#Etymology)
If Texas seceded and split into five republics, Houston or Dallas would be part of the largest Texa.
Thanks for remembering me a thing I did on one of my transit maps. In my region there is a road connecting two towns named Calatorao and Longares, and the town between them is called Alfamen (What an ugly town, BTW). When I created a parody of the Shanghai metro, I had two stations named Calatorao and Garcia Longares (the later actually named after a friend) with another one between them, and I called that stop Alfaman :sombrero:.
Also, when Maine seceded from Massachusetts, the later should have changed its name to Massachusett.
Quote from: empirestate on October 05, 2015, 12:34:22 PM
Then you have false plurae such as person/people and, of course, Stetson/steeple.
In that case, Pearson => Peaople. :-D
Houses should be hice. Mice should be mouses. (a la Dr. Seuss)
Quote from: xcellntbuy on October 05, 2015, 06:58:25 PM
Houses should be hice. Mice should be mouses. (a la Dr. Seuss)
or
The Firesign TheaterQuoteThis land is made of houses
This land is made of mouses
And pussycats to eat them
When the sun goes down
from "How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All"
A Ford Focus/Many Ford Foci (because the automaker says so)
A chorus/Many chori
A hoof/Many heef
A Mazda Miata/many Mazda Miati
But cinema should be the plural form of cinemum (similar to what stadia are to stadium)
One beef, two beeves?
One caboose, many cabeese?
One tampon, two Tampa?
One fax, several feces?
iPhone
The singular form of clothes should be clo.
I'm liking the idea of applying Latin rules to any word that ends in -on, -um, -a, -us, or -is regardless of its etymology.
One explosion, two explosia
One chrysanthemum, two chrysanthema
One camera, two camerae
One platypus, two platypi
One tardis, two tardes
^^ And why are some singular items referred as a plural pair, such as pants, scissors, glasses etc.? shouldn't those be a pant, scissor, glass....?
Moose vs. Meese.
Quote from: Henry on October 06, 2015, 03:07:15 PMBut cinema should be the plural form of cinemum (similar to what stadia are to stadium)
So a screen in a multiplex, or a single-screen cinema are really cinemum (which sounds like cinnamon).
Quote from: Big John on October 06, 2015, 09:11:24 PMAnd why are some singular items referred as a plural pair, such as pants, scissors, glasses etc.? shouldn't those be a pant, scissor, glass....?
A pair of scissors is two blade-handle combinations rotating around a central pivot.
A pair of pants / trousers / shorts / boxers go over a pair of legs (a pair of Y-fronts don't) - perhaps one legged versions would be a pant, trouser or short? Just like how a pair of tights might be one piece that is really leggings, or two individual things.
And glasses have two glasses in them. A monocle is an eyeglass. Spectacles are two eyeglasses - they are a pair of glasses.
Quote from: english si on October 07, 2015, 07:34:03 AM
Quote from: Henry on October 06, 2015, 03:07:15 PMBut cinema should be the plural form of cinemum (similar to what stadia are to stadium)
So a screen in a multiplex, or a single-screen cinema are really cinemum (which sounds like cinnamon).
Aha, another compound plural? One cinemum screen, a whole cinema building, and an entire chain of cinemae?
Quote
A pair of pants / trousers / shorts / boxers go over a pair of legs (a pair of Y-fronts don't) - perhaps one legged versions would be a pant, trouser or short?
That's the fashion industry allusion I made earlier: they regularly take plural terms for apparel and back-form them to singular. "With your body shape, you could probably do a low-rise jean paired with either a clunky heel or a cowboy boot." (And they don't "wear" clothing, they "do" it.)
Women wear a pair of panties but only one bra. Yet they also insist that those items cover a pair of breasts but only one butt. It's an illogical world, gentlemen!
But, then, if this were a logical world, it would be the men who rode side-saddle.
On a related note, we should start referring to the Dakotæ, the Carolinæ, and the Americæ in general.
Quote from: kphoger on October 07, 2015, 03:53:28 PM
On a related note, we should start referring to the Dakotæ, the Carolinæ, and the Americæ in general.
That sounds a lot cooler than the current version.
Add the Koreæ to that.
By the way, the compund pluræ reminds me of slavic languages. They can have up to three of them. And I like that: An explosion, two explosia, three explosiæ :sombrero:.
Quote from: CNGL-Leudimin on October 08, 2015, 05:01:18 PM
Add the Koreæ to that.
By the way, the compund pluræ reminds me of slavic languages. They can have up to three of them. And I like that: An explosion, two explosia, three explosiæ :sombrero:.
Are there really languages that use a different plural depending on whether it's two or three of the thing? Do any languages go farther than that?
My idea of compound pluralem is a little different. It would be used for things that are normally expressed as a plural (e.g.
trousers), then there would be a singular form for just one component of the thing (
trouser) and then a sort of super-plural for multiple instances of the already-plural base thing (
trousren).
Next time you're playing cards, remember...
Two aces, one ax.
Most women have two boobs. That lady in Total Recall had three booobs. If you only have one, it's a bob.
You've heard of a pride of lions, now get ready for: a shame of mimes!
Quote from: empirestate on October 08, 2015, 11:24:24 PM
Are there really languages that use a different plural depending on whether it's two or three of the thing? Do any languages go farther than that?
1 złoty, 2 złote, 5 złotych. (Poland)
The plural for 2 is also used for 3 and 4.
A shush of librarians.
Quote from: Rothman on October 09, 2015, 11:45:45 AM
A shush of librarians.
When I was a slot machine attendant, one of my coworkers declared a group of us to be a "mischief of slot attendants," which I can't argue with.
The group noun for a group of squid is "an audience of squid", missing an opportunity for it to be a "squad of squid".
This thread is the perfect place to quote that immortal bard, Allan Sherman...
One hippopotami cannot get on a bus,
Because one hippopotami is two hippopotamus.
And if you have two goose, that makes one geese.
A pair of mouse is mice. A pair of moose is meese.
A paranoia is a bunch of mental blocks.
And when Ben Casey meets Kildaire, that's called a paradox.
When two minks fall in love, with all their heart and soul,
You'll find the plural of two minks is one mink stole.
Singulars and plurals are so different, bless my soul.
Has it ever occurred to you that the plural of "half" is "whole"?
A bunch of tooth is teeth. A group of foot is feet.
And two canaries make a pair--they call it a parakeet.
A paramecium is not a pair.
A parallelogram is just a crazy square.
Nobody knows just what a paraphernalia is.
And what is half a pair of scissors, but a single sciz?
With someone you adore, if you should find romance,
You'll pant, and pant once more, and that's a pair of pants!