- pluralism
- 1818, as a term in church administration, from plural (q.v.) + -ism. Attested from 1882 as a term in philosophy for a theory which recognizes more than one ultimate principle. In political science, attested from 1919 (in Harold J. Laski) in sense "theory which opposes monolithic state power." Gen. sense of "toleration of diversity within a society or state" is from 1933.
- plural
- late 14c., from O.Fr. plurel "more than one" (12c.), from L. pluralis "of or belonging to more than one," from plus (gen. pluris) "more" (see plus).
- child
- O.E. cild "child," from P.Gmc. *kiltham (source of Gothic kilžei "womb"), unrelated to other languages. Also in O.E. meaning "a youth of gentle birth" (archaic, usually written childe). In 16c., especially "girl child." The difficulty with the plural began in O.E., where the nom. pl. was at first cild, identical with the sing., then c.975 pl. form cildru (gen. cildra) arose, only to be re-pluraled c.1175 as children, which is thus a double plural. M.E. plural cildre survives in Lancashire dialect childer and in Childermas (c.1000) "festival of the Holy Innocents" (Dec. 28).
- areolas
- nativized plural of areola (q.v.), which has its proper plural in areolae (see -ae).
- alumnus
- 1640s, from L. "a pupil," lit. "foster son," vestigial present passive participle of alere "to nourish" (see old), with ending akin to Gk. -omenos. Plural is alumni. Fem. is alumna (1882), fem. plural alumnae.
- octopus
- 1758, genus name of a type of eight-armed cephalopod mollusks, from Gk. oktopous "eight-footed," from okto "eight" (see eight) + pous "foot." Proper plural is octopodes, though octopuses probably works better in English. Octopi is from mistaken assumption that -us is the L. noun ending that takes -i in plural.
- news
- late 14c., plural of new (n.) "new thing," from new (adj.), q.v.; after Fr. nouvelles, used in Bible translations to render M.L. nova (neut. pl.) "news," lit. "new things." Sometimes still regarded as plural, 17c.-19c. Meaning "tidings" is early 15c. The News in the Virginia city Newport News is said to derive from the name of one of its founders, William Newce.
- this
- O.E. žis, neuter demonstrative pronoun and adj. (masc. žes, fem. žeos), probably from a North Sea Gmc. pronoun formed by combining the base *ža- (see that) with -s, which is probably identical with O.E. se "the" (representing here "a specific thing"), but it may be O.E. seo, imperative of see (v.) "to behold." Cf. O.S. these, O.N. žessi, Du. deze, O.Fris. this, O.H.G. deser, Ger. dieser. Once fully inflected, with 10 distinct forms (see table below); the oblique cases and other genders gradually fell away by 15c. The O.E. plural was žęs (nom. and acc.), which in Northern M.E. became thas, and in Midlands and Southern England became thos. The Southern form began to be used late 13c. as the plural of that (replacing M.E. tho, from O.E. ža) and acquired an -e (apparently from the influence of M.E. adj. plurals in -e; cf. alle from all, summe from sum "some"), emerging early 14c. as modern those. About 1175 thes (probably a variant of O.E. žęs) began to be used as the plural of this, and by 1200 it had taken the form these, the final -e acquired via the same mechanism that gave one to those.
Masc. Fem. Neut. Plural Nom. žes žeos žis žas Acc. žisne žas žis žas Gen. žisses žisse žisses žissa Dat. žissum žisse žissum žissum Inst. žys žisse žys žissum - dice
- early 14c., des, dys, plural of dy (see die (n.)), altered 14c. to dyse, dyce, and 15c. to dice. "As in pence, the plural s retains its original breath sound, probably because these words were not felt as ordinary plurals, but as collective words" [OED]. Sometimes used as singular 1400-1700. The verb "to cut into cubes" is first recorded late 14c. Related: Diced.
- tweezers
- 1650s, extended from tweezes, plural of tweeze "case for tweezers" (1622), aphetic of etweese, considered as plural of etwee (1610s) "a small case," from Fr. étui "small case," originally "a keeping safe," from O.Fr. estuier "to keep, shut up, imprison," of uncertain origin. Sense transferred from the case to the implement inside it.
- kine
- archaic plural of "cow," actually a double plural (cf. children) or a gen. pl. of M.E. kye "cows," from O.E. cy, pl. of cu "cow."
- triumvir
- "one of three men in the same office or of the same authority," 1579, from L. triumvir, from Old L. phrase trium virum, genitive plural of tres viri "three men," from tres "three" + viri, plural of vir "man" (see virile). Triumvirate is from 1584.
- eye
- O.E. ege (Mercian), eage (W. Saxon), from P.Gmc. *augon, from PIE *oqw- "to see" (cf. Skt. akshi "the eye, the number two," Gk. opsis "a sight," Goth. augo, O.C.S. oko, Lith. akis, L. oculus, Armenian aku). Until late 14c. the plural was in -an, hence modern dial. plural een, ene. The verb is first recorded 1560s. Related: Eyed; eyeing. The eye of a needle was in O.E.; to see eye to eye is from Isa. lii.8. Eye contact attested by 1965. Eye-opener "anything that informs and enlightens" is from 1863. Have an eye on "keep under supervision" is attested from early 15c.
- -'s
- suffix forming the possessive case of most Mod.Eng. nouns, was gradually extended in M.E. from O.E. -es, the most common genitive inflection of masc. and neut. nouns (cf. dęg "day," gen. dęges "day's"). But O.E. also had genitives in -e, -re, -an as well as "mutation-genitives" (cf. boc "book," plural bec), and the -es form was never used in plural (where -a, -ra, -na prevailed), thus avoiding the ambiguity of words like kings'. As a suffix forming some adverbs, it represents the gen. sing. ending of O.E. masc. and neuter nouns and some adjectives.
- -acea
- suffix denoting orders and classes in zoology, from L. -acea, neut. pl. of -aceus "belonging to, of the nature of" (enlarged from adj. suffix -ax, gen. -acis); neut. pl. because of a presumed animalia, a neuter plural noun. Thus, crustacea "shellfish" are *crustacea animalia "crusty animals." In botany, the suffix is -aceae, from the fem. pl. of -aceus, with reference to L. plantae, which is a fem. plural.
- -s (1)
- suffix forming almost all Mod.Eng. plural nouns, was gradually extended in M.E. from O.E. -as, the nom. plural and acc. plural ending of certain "strong" masc. nouns (cf. dęg "day," nom./acc. pl. dagas "days"). The commonest Gmc. declension, traceable back to the original PIE inflection system, it is also the source of the Du. -s plurals and (by rhotacism) Scand. -r plurals (e.g. Swed. dagar). Much more uniform today than originally; O.E. also had a numerous category of "weak" nouns that formed their plurals in -an, and other strong nouns that formed plurals with -u. Quirk and Wrenn, in their O.E. grammar, estimate that 45 percent of the nouns a student will encounter will be masc., nearly four-fifths of them with gen. sing. -es and nom./acc. pl. in -as. Less than half, but still the largest chunk. The triumphs of -'s possessives and -s plurals represent common patterns in language: using only a handful of suffixes to do many jobs (cf. -ing), and the most common variant squeezing out the competition. To further muddy the waters, it's been extended in slang since 1936 to singulars (e.g. ducks, sweets, babes) as an affectionate or dim. suffix. O.E. single-syllable collectives (sheep, folk) as well as weights, measures, and units of time did not use -s. The use of it in these cases began in M.E., but the older custom is preserved in many traditional dialects (ten pound of butter; more than seven year ago).
- both
- there are several theories, all similar, and deriving the word from the tendency to say "both the." One is that it is O.E. begen (masc.) "both" (from P.Gmc. *ba, from PIE *bho "both") + -ž extended base. Another traces it to the P.Gmc. formula represented in O.E. by ba ža "both these," from ba (feminine nominative and accusative of begen) + ža, nominative and accusative plural of se "that." A third traces it to O.N. bašir "both," from *bai thaiz "both the," from P.Gmc. *thaiz, third person plural pronoun. Cf. O.Fris. bethe, Du. beide, O.H.G. beide, Ger. beide, Goth. bajožs.
- barracks
- plural, and usual, form of barrack (q.v.).
- strata
- c.1700, plural of stratum.
- appendices
- proper L. plural of appendix (q.v.).
- criteria
- 1620s, plural of criterion (q.v.).
- effluvia
- Latin plural of effluvium.
- moratoria
- Latin plural of moratorium.
- ganglia
- Latin plural of ganglion.
- nuptials
- "marriage, wedding," 1550s, plural of nuptial.
- effects
- "goods, property," 1704, plural of effect.
- delicacies
- "things dainty and gratifying to the palate," mid-15c., from plural of delicacy.
- teens
- 1673 (plural), formed from -teen, taken as a separate word.
- shay
- 1717, back-formation from chaise (q.v.) mistaken as a plural.
- dues
- "fee for membership," 1660s, from plural of due. "Giue them their due though they were diuels" [1589].
- children
- plural of child (q.v.)
- feet
- plural of foot (q.v.).
- teeth
- plural of tooth (q.v.).
- women
- plural of woman (q.v.).
- foci
- plural of focus (q.v.).
- lacunae
- plural of lacuna (q.v.).
- ladies
- plural of lady (q.v.).
- larvae
- plural of larva (q.v.).
- millennia
- plural of millennium.
- errata
- plural of erratum (q.v.).
- folks
- "people of one's family," 1715, colloquial, from plural of folk.
- faculties
- early 16c., powers or properties of ones self; also physical functions, plural of faculty.
- feelings
- "tender or sensitive side of one's nature," 1771, from plural of feeling.
- brethren
- alternative plural of brother (q.v.); predominant c.1200-1600s, but surviving only in religious usage.
- duds
- c.1300, dudde "cloak, mantle," later in plural, "ragged clothing" (1560s), of uncertain origin.
- tooth
- O.E. toš (plural teš), from P.Gmc. *tanth, *tunth (cf. O.S., Dan., Swed., Du. tand, O.N. tönn, O.Fris. toth, O.H.G. zand, Ger. Zahn, Goth. tunžus), from PIE *dont-/*dent- "tooth" (cf. Skt. danta, Gk. odontos, L. dens, Lith. dantis, O.Ir. det, Welsh dent). Plural form teeth is an instance of i-mutation. Application to tooth-like parts of other objects (saws, combs, etc.) first recorded 1520s. Toothache is attested from late 14c. Toothbrush is first recorded 1650s; toothpaste first attested 1832; toothpick is from late 15c. Toothsome "pleasant to the taste" is c.1565; the fig. sense of "attractive" (1550s) is a bit older.
- men
- plural of man.
- thou
- 2nd nominative singular personal pronoun, O.E. žu, from P.Gmc. *thu (cf. O.Fris. thu, M.Du., M.L.G. du, O.H.G., Ger. du, O.N. žu, Goth. žu), from PIE *tu-, second person singular pronoun (cf. L. tu, Ir. tu, Welsh ti, Gk. su, Lith. tu, O.C.S. ty, Skt. twa-m). Superseded in M.E. by plural form you (from a different root), but retained in certain dialects (e.g. Philadelphia Quakers). The plural at first was used in addressing superior individuals, later also (to err on the side of propriety) strangers, and ultimately all equals. By c.1450 the use of thou to address inferiors gave it a tinge of insult unless addressed by parents to children, or intimates to one another. Hence the verb meaning "to use 'thou' to a person" (c.1440).
"Avaunt, caitiff, dost thou thou me! I am come of good kin, I tell thee!" ["Hickscorner," c.1530]
A brief history of the second person pronoun in Eng. can be found here. - condolences
- "formal declaration of sympathy," 1670s, pl. of condolence. Reason for the plural is unclear; earliest references are to expressions from groups of persons; perhaps the habit stuck.
- cheval de frise
- 1688, from Fr., lit. "horse of Frisia," because it was first employed there as a defense against cavalry. Plural chevaux de frise.