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Discussion Groups / English Usage / April 2007Roach
How come the plural of "roach" as in a common insect is "roaches", but the plural of "Roach", as in a cyprinid fish found in Europe appears to be "Roach"? > How come the plural of "roach" as in a common insect is "roaches", but > the plural of "Roach", as in a cyprinid fish found in Europe appears > to be "Roach"? What's the plural of "fish"? Or "haddock"? "Cod"? "Bream"? "Salmon"? Keep at it; you may see a pattern emerge. > <roboti...@googlemail.com> wrote in message > [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > > Keep at it; you may see a pattern emerge. Some do, some don't. Minnows, Miller's Thumbs, Stone loaches, Sticklebacks. But as you point out, a lot don't. Pike, Rudd, Dace, Lamprey. >> <roboti...@googlemail.com> wrote in message >> [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > Sticklebacks. But as you point out, a lot don't. Pike, Rudd, Dace, > Lamprey. I didn't say it's a solid pattern -- it's herringbone. [...] > Some do, some don't. Minnows, Miller's Thumbs, Stone loaches, > Sticklebacks. But as you point out, a lot don't. Pike, Rudd, Dace, > Lamprey. But King Henry I of England is said to have died from eating "a surfeit of lampreys". <http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/animals/fish/lamprey.htm>  SignatureLes > roboti...@googlemail.com wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > -- > Les With the majority of fauna (and indeed flora) the singular can be used as the plural quite legitimately even if there is a 'normal' plural available. You could have a house infested with cockroach and beetle, for example (though not, I suspect, with flea, fly, or louse). Or you might hunt fox and pheasant, and, (once upon a time) elephant, giraffe, and tiger. |
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