Part 40 (1/2)
OBS 26--Nouns have, in so, which seems to be directly at variance with their form Thus, _cattle_, for beasts of pasture, and _pulse_, for peas and beans, though in appearance singulars only, are generally, if not always, plural; and _suallows, chintz, series, superficies, molasses, suds, hunks, jakes, trapes_, and _corps_, with the appearance of plurals, are generally, if not always, singular Dr Webster says that _cattle_ is of both numbers; but wherein the oneness of cattle can consist, I know not The Bible says, ”God made--_cattle after their kind_”--_Gen_, i, 25 Here _kind_ is indeed singular, as if _cattle_ were a natural genus of which one enus of which one is _a sheep_: but whether properly expressed so or not, is questionable; perhaps it ought to be, ”and cattle after their _kinds_” Dr Gillies says, in his History of Greece, ”_cattle was regarded_ as the most convenient _measure_ of value”
This seeible, than to say, ”_Sheep was regarded_ as the most convenient _measure_ of value” And ould this ular, unless limited to that number by some definitive word; and _cattle_ I conceive to be incapable of any such limitation
OBS 27--Of the last class of words above cited, some may assuallowses, chintses_: the rest either want the plural, or have it seldoe of form _Corps_, a body of troops, is a French word, which, when singular, is pronounced _c=ore_, and when plural, _c=ores_ But _corpse_, a dead body, is an English word, pronounced _k~orps_, andthe plural in two syllables, _corpses_ _Suiven in Cobb's Dictionary as the plural of _summons_; but some authors have used the latter with a plural verb: as, ”But Love's first _summons_ seldom _are_ obey'd”--_Waller's Poems_, p 8 Dr Johnson says this noun is froular ought to be _a suular plural But this ”singular noun with a plural terinated from the Latin verb _subon of law, in which we so_ witnesses”
The authorities for it, however, are good enough; as, ”_This_ present _summons_”--SHAK: _Joh Dict_ ”_This summons_ he resolved to disobey”--FELL: _ib_ _Chints_ is called by Cobb a ”substantive _plural_”
and defined as ”cotton _cloths_, ular, and Worcester (perhaps more properly) writes it _chintz_ Johnson cites Pope as speaking of ”_a char chints_,” and I have so es ”Of the Construction of single Words, or _Serieses_ of Words”--_Ward's Gram_, p 114 Walker, in his Elements of Elocution, makes frequent use of the word ”_serieses_,” and of the phrase ”_series of serieses_” But most writers, I suppose, would doubt the propriety of this practice; because, in Latin, all nouns of the fifth declension, such as _caries, congeries, series, species, superficies_, make their nominative and vocative cases alike in both nulish Dr Blair has used the word _species_ in a plural sense; though I think he ought rather to have preferred the regular English word _kinds_: ”The higher _species_ of poetry seldo hard h derived or corrupted froular of that word; nor has it any occasion for a plural forallows_, according to Dr Webster, is _gallowses_; nor is that forallows_ is of both numbers and not to be varied: ”_Gallowses_ were occasionally put in order by the side of h Hunt's Byron_, p 369
”Who would not guess there allowses_ and ropes, Before their eyes, ht reconcile Their anih the plural nuular, and of course enerally imply its existence, we have examples, and those not a few, in which the case is otherwise Sos as nature or art has made plural or double; some, because they have been for which belongs to nouns; and some, because they are compounds in which a plural word is principal, and put last, are commonly used in the plural nuh these three classes of plurals may not be perfectly separable, I shall endeavour to exhibit them in the order of this explanation
1 Plurals inand form: _analects, annals,[144] archives, ashes, assets, billiards, bowels, breeches, calends, cates, chops, clothes, coiblets, goggles, greaves, hards_ or _hurds, heies,[145] piles, pincers_ or _pinchers, pliers, reins, scissors, shears, skittles, snuffers, spectacles, teens, tongs, trowsers, tweezers, umbles, vespers, victuals_
2 Plurals by formation, derived chiefly from adjectives: _acoustics, aeronautics, analytics, bitters, catoptrics, commons, conics, credentials, delicates, dioptrics, econolanders, gnos, hydrodynas, netics, mathematics, s, movables, mumps, nuptials, optics, phonics, phonetics, physics,[146]
pneus, shatters, skiles, sundries, sweepings, tactics, thanks, tidings, trappings, vives, vitals, wages,[147] withers, yellows_
3 Plurals by composition: _backstairs, cocklestairs, firearms,[148]
headquarters, hotcockles, spatterdashes, self-affairs_ To these ines, antipodes, antes, antoeci, ai, antiscii, ascii, literati, fauces, regalia_, and _credenda_, with the Italian _vermicelli_, and the French _belles-lettres_ and _entremets_
OBS 29--There are several nouns which are set down by so it Of this class are the following: _amends,[149] ancients, awns, bots, catacos,[150] entrails, fetters, fireworks, greens, gyves, hatches, intestines, lees,[151] lungs, malanders, mallows, moderns, oats, orts, pleiads, premises, relics, remains, shackles, shambles,[152]
stilts, stairs, tares, vetches_ The fact is, that these words have, or ought to have, the singular, as often as there is any occasion to use it; and the sa the formation of _the plural_[153] For where the idea of unity or plurality comes clearly before the ly, without thinking much about the authorities we can quote for it
OBS 30--In general, where both numbers exist in common use, there is some palpable oneness or individuality, to which the article _a_ or _an_ is applicable; the nature of the species is found entire in every individual of it; and a ives rise to plurality in the name But the nature of a mass, or of an indefinite multitude taken collectively, is not found in individuals as such; nor is the naold_, or plural, as _ashes_, so understood Hence, though every noun must be of one number or the other, there are many which have little or no need of both Thus we commonly speak of _wheat, barley, or oats_, collectively; and very seldom find occasion for any other forms of these words But chafferers at the corn-market, in spite of Cobbett,[154]
will talk about _wheats_ and _barleys_, ardener, if he pleases, will tell of an _oat_, (as does Milton, in his Lycidas,) le seed or plant But, because _wheat_ or _barley_ generally le kernel, he rain of wheat_ or a _barleycorn_ And these he may readily rains of wheat_, or _three barleycorns_
OBS 31--My chief concern is with general principles, but the illustration of these requires many particular examples--even far more than I have room to quote The word _aular as well as plural; but Webster's late dictionaries exhibit _aular, and _amends_ as plural, with definitions that needlessly differ, though not lish; and prefer the regular singular, _an ain, and is solish with a needless final _e_; as, ”But only to make a kind of honourable _amende_ to God”--_Rollin's Ancient Hist_, Vol ii, p 24 The word _remains_ Dr Webster puts down as plural only, and yet uses it hiular: ”The creation of a Dictator, even for a few months, would have buried every _remain_ of freedom”--_Webster's Essays_, p 70 There are also other authorities for this usage, and also for soular; as, ”But Duelling is unlawful and murderous, a _remain_ of the ancient Gothic barbarity”--_Brown's Divinity_, p 26 ”I grieve with the old, for so many additional inconveniences, more than their so”--POPE: _in Joh Dict_ ”A disjunctive syllogisic_
”Where should he have this gold? It is soment, some slender _ort_ of his remainder”--SHAK: _Timon of Athens_
OBS 32--There are several nouns which are usually alike in both nurouse, hose, neat, sheep, swine, vermin_, and _rest_, (i e
_the rest_, the others, the residue,) are regular singulars, but they are used also as plurals, and that ain, _alms, aloes, bellows, means, news, odds, shambles_, and _species_, are proper plurals, but ulars _Folk_ and _fry_ are collective nouns _Folk_ means _people_; _a folk, a people_: as, ”The ants are _a people_ not strong;”--”The conies are but _a feeble folk_”--_Prov_, xxx, 25, 26 ”He laid his hands on a few sick _folk_, and healed _theht to be the plural of _folk_, and equivalent to _peoples_, is now used with reference to a plurality of individuals, and the collective word seems liable to be entirely superseded by it A _fry_ is a swar in water: so called, perhaps, because their ht properly be called _fries_; but this for with the other ”So numerous _was the fry_”--_Cowper_
”The _fry betake the pools”--_Quarterly Review_ ”You cannot think ht of by the true prophets”--_Watson's Apology_, p 93
”_Grouse_, a heathcock”--_Johnson_
”The 'squires in scorn will fly the house For better galish tailor, co out of _a_ French _hose_”--_Shak_ ”He, being in love, could not see to garter his _hose_”--_Id_ Formerly, the plural was _hosen_: ”Then these men were bound, in their coats, their _hosen_, and their hats”--_Dan_, iii, 21 Of _sheep_, Shakspeare has used the regular plural: ”Two hot _sheeps_, marry!”--_Love's Labour Lost_, Act ii, Sc 1
”Who both by his calf and his lamb will be known, May well kill _a neat_ and _a sheep_ of his own”--_Tusser_
”His droves of asses, carew shortly twice as great”--_Sandys_
”As a jewel of gold in _a swine's_ snout”--_Prov_, xi, 22 ”A herd of _”--_Matt_, viii, 30 ”An idle person only lives to spend his time, and eat the fruits of the earth, like a _vermin_ or a wolf”--_Taylor_ ”The head of a wolf, dried and hanged up, will scare away _vermin_”--_Bacon_ ”Cheslip, _a small vermin_ that lies under stones or tiles”--SKINNER: in _Joh and in Web Dict_ ”This is flour, the _rest is_ bran”--”And the _rest were_ blinded”--_Roar hath a just demand of _an alms_”--_Swift_ ”Thine _alms are_ coht of air performed the function of _a bellows_”--_Robertson's Amer_, ii, 223 ”As the _bellows do_”--_Bicknell's Gram_, ii, 11 ”The _bellows are_ burned”--_Jer_, vi, 29 ”Let _a gallows_ be made”--_Esther_, v, 14 ”_Mallows are_ very useful in medicine”--_Wood's Dict_ ”_News_,” says Johnson, ”is without the singular, unless it be considered as singular”--_Dict_ ”So _is_ good _news_ from a far country”--_Prov_, xxv, 25 ”Evil _news rides_ fast, while good _news baits_”--_Milton_ ”When Rhea heard _these news_, she fled”--_Raleigh_ ”_Neere brought_ to the queen”--_Hu, but the consolation hich _they_ are attended, ought to rief”--_Gil Blas_, Vol ii, p 20 ”Between these two cases there _are_ great _odds_”--_Hooker_
”Where the _odds is_ considerable”--_Ca on which side the _odds lie_”--_Locke_ ”The greater _are the odds_ that he h thus _an odds_ unequally they meet”--_Rowe's Lucan_, B iv, l 789 ”Preeminent by so _much odds_”--_Milton_ ”To make a _shambles_ of the parliainning, a great Aceldama, _a shambles_ of blood”--_Christian's Vade-Mecum_, p 6 ”_A shambles_” sounds so inconsistent, I should rather say, ”_A shay of the word is _uncertain_; Webster refers it to the Saxon _scamel_: it means _a butcher's stall, a ood reason for the _s_, unless more than one such place is intended ”Who sells his subjects to the _shan power”--_Pitt_ ”A special idea is called by the schools _a species_”--_Watts_ ”He intendeth the care of _species_, or common natures”--_Brown_ ”ALOE, (al~o) _n; plu_ ALOES”--_Webster's Dict_, and _Worcester's_ ”But it was _aloe_ itself to lose the reward”-- _Tupper's Crock of Gold_, p 16
”But high in a _aloes_ threw”