*Tapping the microphone, he asks, “Is this thing on?”
Throat clearing and paper rustling ensue, and then he turns his attention once more to the microphone.*
“Attention, McDonalds! ‘Select’ is a verb or an adjective. It is not a noun. Thank you. This has been a Public Service Announcement For Your Own Good.”
I refuse to accept that definition. My Webster’s includes verb and adjective definitions. No nouns.
Obviously, the owners of dictionary.com have succumbed to the political, legal and economic manipulation of an internatinal megacorporation. Did you notice the word “value” in that definition? As in, “Extra Value Meal”? McDonald’s propaganda is infiltrating even our dictionaries!
What’s next? “I’d like a McBeefGround Grilled.”
“Would you like fried with that?”
“Sure! And give me a Chocolate Milkshaken while you’re at it. To gone.”
My Merriam-Webster kung fu is stronger than your Webster’s kung fu:
Main Entry: select
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): -s
1 : one that is select – often used in plural <quality lumber, notably the selects and clear grades – N.C.Brown> <it is possible to buy ware that is composed wholly of selects – Sally Taylor> <of the oysters he chooses only the selects>
2 archaic : a select class or group <had his select of friends and acquaintance – Roger North>
Even if we accept this very limited use of “select” as a noun, it still cannot be pluralized with an ‘s.’ The plural of select is select. There is no such plural noun as “selects.”
(It might help to think of it as being pretty much analogous to the the word “chosen” as a noun. You might say one person is “the chosen” or that a group of people are “the chosen.” You would never say a group was “the chosens”)
Long before McDougles used the term there were “selects” in video and film production. Selects are the good shots you keep after all the weak ones have been discarded*. Once you have all the selects to choose from you then narrow it down gradually until you have a final edit.
*They aren’t actually destroyed or erased or thrown away because you could possible need them later. Especially in film production where a couple frames of each seperate piece of negative are actually destroyed when the negative is conformed.
You could pit their discrimination against the gerund in its correct form:
“I’m lovin’ it”
(slogan)
"Dippin’ sauce. Dip in mouth’ (HA!!! Oh, the cleverness!)
(a billboard)