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The Care and Feeding of Weird Plurals
Posted by Editormum on Sunday, 20 April 2003 in Uncategorized | ∞
There are a number of words in English that do not follow the general rule for creating the plural. They are useful, common words, and the only problem with them is the uniqueness of their plural form. You see, misusing the words makes you sound less than the professional, intelligent, well-informed person that you are. So here’s a list of some of them, singular and plural.
- phenomenon, which means “an unusual occurence.” The plural is phenomena.
- curriculum, which means “a course of study.” The plural is curricula.
- appendix, which means “the additional supporting matter included after the body of a written work.” The plural is appendices (/uh-PEN-duh-sees/).
- index, which means “an alphabetical list of topics covered and the place in which they can be found.” The plural is indices, although indexes is gaining acceptance in the U.S.
- octopus, the plural of which is octopi.
Similarly: hippopotamus, hippopotami; cactus, cacti; radius, radii (pronounced RAY-dee-eye).
2 Comments
Plurals (pleurae? No that’s the lining of the chest cavity)
Your first four examples were themselves plurals which have come, over many centuries, into common use as singular nouns, no? (Compound plurality).
Consider the “-ix” suffix (matrix, aviatrix) similar to “index” (matrices, aviatrices), Oh, those twisted Greeks!
How much simpler were this Japanese, same word, just indicate how many already (and two verb tenses).
Um, I don’t think so.
If I remember my Latin and Greek correctly, the four words you inquired about were all singular in their natal language. It is only with the decline in Classical education that we find the confusion about the correct formation of plurals.
Some confusion occurs when people are confronted with the collective nouns that are similarly constructed (medium/media, for instance) …. perhaps I need to address them in another post.