# Courts-Martial, Court-Martials, and Suffixes **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 16, 2015, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/courts-martial-court-martials-and-suffixes/740611 "2015-12-16T14:44:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2015, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/courts-martial-court-martials-and-suffixes/740611/1 "2015-12-16T14:44:35Z")
So, when we use “court-martial” as a noun, it’s properly pluralized as “courts-martial”. But it seems we don’t use the same structure when it’s used as a verb: “court-martialed”, “court-martials”, etc. Why? Powers &8^] ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2015, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/courts-martial-court-martials-and-suffixes/740611/2 "2015-12-16T14:58:18Z")
“Court martial” is a postpositive adjective phrase from “Law French” dating back to when Old Norman French and Anglo Norman French were used in English courts; since “martial” is the adjective and “court” is the noun, the plural is courts martial. The verbing “court martialed” is an anglicized neologism and follows modern English conventions. Other postpostivie adjective phrases: attorney general, notary public, heir apparant, letters testamentary, etc. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2015, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/courts-martial-court-martials-and-suffixes/740611/3 "2015-12-16T14:59:55Z")
Mainly the changing use of language. We have a Trades Union Council, but only the most pedantic would pluralise trade unions that way. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2015, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/courts-martial-court-martials-and-suffixes/740611/4 "2015-12-16T17:15:34Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > Other postpostivie adjective phrases: attorney general, notary public, heir apparant, letters testamentary, etc. Passerby/passersby? Is this just a postpositive phrase that has been merged into a single word? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2015, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/courts-martial-court-martials-and-suffixes/740611/5 "2015-12-16T17:30:50Z")
Passerby is a recent American corruption (or contraction) of “passer-by.” ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2015, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/courts-martial-court-martials-and-suffixes/740611/6 "2015-12-16T22:29:46Z")
If I see several insects with large colorful wings, are those buttersfly? \ ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/courts-martial-court-martials-and-suffixes/740611/7 "2015-12-17T00:25:02Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Passerby is a recent American corruption (or contraction) of “passer-by.” That’s a common trend as languages evolve. When I was reading old books for [Distributed Proofreading](http://www.pgdp.net/c/default.php), I was surprised to see the change from “to day” into “to-day” into “today”. And even more surprised to see “to-morrow” – I had never realized that they started as separate words. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/courts-martial-court-martials-and-suffixes/740611/8 "2015-12-17T22:09:13Z")
“Court-martial”, as a verb, is an informal pop-culture invention. If you want to be pedantic, the proper phrase is “to try by court-martial” (“try” being the verb, and “court-martial” being the venue where the trial is held). ---
**Author:** ![Baffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@Baffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baffle)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/courts-martial-court-martials-and-suffixes/740611/9 "2015-12-17T23:42:32Z")
In case you’re curious, this is called a postpositive adjective, and [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postpositive_adjective) has an article with a decent list. English as a language is quite comfortable with using nouns as verbs and verbs as nouns, at least colloquially. We seem to derive some humour out of it. [Here’s another article.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_(word_formation)#Verbing) Because it’s colloquial neologism, it doesn’t always follow the strict grammatical rules. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/courts-martial-court-martials-and-suffixes/740611/10 "2015-12-18T00:22:29Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Mainly the changing use of language. We have a Trades Union Council, but only the most pedantic would pluralise trade unions that way. “Trades Union” is not a plural of “trade union”, but a rather old-fashioned variant of “trade union”, where “union” is the noun and “trade(s)” is an adjective. The Trades Union Council is so-called because it is a council composed of delegates from trades unions. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/courts-martial-court-martials-and-suffixes/740611/11 "2015-12-18T00:34:26Z")
I like the fact that the verb “verb” arose through verbing of the noun “verb”. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/courts-martial-court-martials-and-suffixes/740611/12 "2015-12-18T13:54:36Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Passerby/passersby? Is this just a postpositive phrase that has been merged into a single word? Yes. This process (called clitization) is thought to be the way that postpositions become case inflections. That doesn’t explain why different inflectional classes arise, although some of that might be due to vowel harmonization. But that is clearly not sufficient.