Odd plurals

What's the plural of "octopus"? There's more than one correct answer

Usually, plural English nouns are pretty straightforward. Just add an -s or -es, and you're done. However, there are more than a few odd ones out: words that change their vowels, acquire unexpected endings, or become almost unrecognizable. These irregular nouns are not random: they are linguistic leftovers from older forms of English and from the many languages that contributed to its vocabulary. Here's a list of 10 irregular plurals that are considerably more interesting than simply adding an -s.

While the plural of mouse looks like an exception today, it is actually a survivor from a much older way of forming plurals called i-mutation, common in Old English and many Germanic languages. It's the same process that gave us geese, feet, teeth, and lice, among others.

English eventually abandoned this system in favor of the -s and -es mechanism for building plurals, but these words survive as remnants of the old times.

Children is an interesting case of what linguists call double plurals: words that conserve two different marks of plurality in their construction.

The Old English word cild was pluralized as cildru originally, and eventually as childre. As the language evolved, speakers added the plural suffix -en (also found in words like oxen and brethren) to form the word children. In effect, the word accumulated two markers of plurality.

English normally has a strong tendency to simplify these cases, which makes the survival of the word children (instead of childs) especially remarkable.

Cactus is a good example of what happens when English borrows a word, but speakers can't quite decide whether to keep the original language's grammar. The word entered English from Latin, and the traditional Latin plural of cactus is _cacti.

_However, English has its own perfectly sensible way of making plurals, and that has produced the word cactuses. In modern English dictionaries, both words are accepted. Cacti sounds more traditional and is particularly common in botanical contexts, while cactuses sounds more natural to everyday speakers.

Few English plurals generate as much debate as octopus. You'll commonly encounter octopuses, octopi, and, more rarely, octopodes. So which one is correct?

The popular form octopi comes from the mistaken assumption that octopus is a Latin word ending in -us and should therefore form its plural with -i, just like cacti. In reality, the word comes from the Greek oktōpous, meaning "eight-footed." Following Classical Greek rules, the plural should be octopodes.

While octopodes is closer to the original Greek, it's only common in specialized discussions. For ordinary English, octopuses is the simplest and most widely accepted choice.

In Latin, the singular datum means something that has been given, and data is its plural. English borrowed both forms, particularly in scientific and academic writing, where the distinction has remained important for centuries.

Today, datum is much less common outside of specialized contexts. While in formal scientific writing data is often still treated as plural, in everyday use many speakers treat it as a singular mass noun, as in "The data is stored on the server." The plural has effectively become more widespread than its original singular.

Phenomenon is another Greek word whose traditional plural has survived intact. In Greek, phainomenon referred to something that appears or is observed, while phenomena was its plural. English borrowed the pair through Latin and preserved the Greek-style ending.

Unlike cactus, where English developed an alternative plural, phenomena remains firmly established in educated and technical writing. It is especially common in science, where researchers may discuss multiple natural phenomena.

Both brothers and brethren are perfectly valid plurals of brother. However, in a surprising twist, they took on different nuances: while brothers is used for male siblings ordinarily, brethren (the older form) survived mainly in religious, fraternal, and formal contexts.

Brethren was once a normal plural of brother, but as English developed, the regular -s plural became increasingly dominant. Rather than disappearing completely, the older form became specialized. That gives us a fascinating example of a word developing two different plurals that coexist because they acquired different meanings.

The word die, referring to a single numbered polyhedron (most commonly a cube) used in games, entered English through the Old French dé, while dice developed from the French plural dés.

While the distinction is still very much in use, the singular die is losing strength in everyday English, and dice is increasingly being treated as both a plural and a singular noun. In time, the singular form die may disappear from everyday English vocabulary.

People is an especially interesting plural because it didn't originally come from the same word as person. The two words have completely different Latin origins.

Person ultimately comes from Latin persona, meaning a person, character, or role. People comes from Latin populus, meaning a population or nation, passing into English through French. Over time, English speakers began using people as the ordinary plural of person, even though the two words had separate histories.

The regular plural persons still exists and is perfectly legitimate, particularly in legal and formal contexts when referring to a group of individuals. But in ordinary conversation, people has become overwhelmingly dominant.

Index has two established plurals, and the choice between them often depends on what you're talking about. Indexes is the ordinary English plural, while indices preserves the Latin form and is especially common in mathematics, science, and economics.

The Latin plural indices survived in specialized fields because scholars continued using Latin-derived terminology. Meanwhile, ordinary English speakers naturally applied the familiar -es ending and produced indexes. Both forms are now standard.

Worth a thousand words

10 uncommon adjectives you should reintroduce into your vocabulary

Image: Pearse O'Halloran

Languages are a wonderful thing, not only because they are a means of communication and thought development, but also because they showcase the human mind’s ability for description. Sadly, many words that were once considered common have slowly become obsolete, and the English language has lost unique ways of expressing specific realities. Here are some fancy adjectives that you should consider reintroducing into your daily vocabulary.

Image: Håkon Helberg

Meaning: related to ducks.

From the Latin anas, ‘duck’, this adjective can be used for anything pertaining to that particular animal. It might seem an unnecessary adjective, but it is nonetheless useful because you never know when you will have to discuss something duck-related.

Image: Melissa Chabot

Meaning: pleasant to look at.

We can describe things and people as lovely, beautiful, charming, and more. But sometimes, these things and people are just simply pleasant to the eye. For times like that, we have the adjective ‘comely’.

Image: Jakub Kriz

Meaning: lacking life or spirit, languid.

Some might think that the word languid is fancy enough for expressing a lack of energy, but don’t you think that ‘lackadaisical’ is a good conversation starter? It comes from the phrase ‘alack the day’, where ‘alack’ was used to express sorrow or regret.

Image: Sunguk Kim

Meaning: showy, falsely attractive, pretentious.

The origins of this word are not exactly pleasant. From the Latin meretrix, a word used for women of questionable morals, its meaning shifted to refer to things that appear attractive but lack integrity or value.

Image: Collab Media

Meaning: dull, without significance or interest.

This adjective comes from a Latin word, jejunus, that meant ‘empty of food, hungry, meager’. Once adopted into English, it began being used for things that lack substance. Additionally, ‘jejune’ also means ‘juvenile’, a meaning created by its confusion with the French jeune (‘young’).

Image: Glen Carrie

Meaning: fluent but insincere and shallow.

From glibberig, an Old German word meaning ‘slippery’, the term ‘glib’ was initially incorporated into English to describe things that were physically smooth or slippery. Over time, it came to describe someone who speaks easily and fluently, but does not convey sincerity.

Image: Cherry Laithang

Meaning: threatening, of pernicious influence.

Of Old English origin, ‘baleful’ comes from the word bealu, ‘evil’. Sometimes confused with ‘baneful’ (from Old English bana, ‘slayer’ or ‘murderer’), these two words have close meanings. However, while ‘baneful’ is used for things that cause evil, ‘baleful’ usually refers to a threat or sign of evilness.

Image: Olav Ahrens Røtne

Meaning: skilled, clever, resourceful.

Originally a French word meaning both ‘handsome’ and ‘skilled in combat’, it is no longer used solely for physical skills, but also to denote intellectual capacities.

Image: Rachel Park

Meaning: intemperate or excessive in eating and drinking.

Totally unrelated to a certain swear word quite common in English, the term ‘crapulous’ comes from the Latin crapula, meaning ‘intoxication’, derived in turn from the Greek term for a hangover headache.

Image: Grace Kelly

Meaning: whiny, with a tendency to complain.

Related through its origins to ‘quarrel,’ the adjective ‘querulous’ comes from the Latin queri, ‘to complain’. But beware: this word applies only to whiny people who complain for fun, not to justified or occasional complaints.