[QUOTE=Peter Morris]
But one ear of corn is a corn-on-the-cob. And two ears would be two corns-on-the-cob, possibly. Or maybe not. Well, I said I wasn’t sure.
[/quote]
Wouldn’t one call it multiple “cobs of corn”? “Corn-on-the-cob” is a method of serving, or a dish. If one is speaking of the actual objects, they would be cobs of corn (“corn cobs” implies the empty leftover cobs, I would believe.).
Probably right. I said all along I wasn’t sure it’s legitimate.
Still I don’t need it any more since ‘squab’ is a good one for b, thanks to yabob.
Culs-de-sac and folk are also good additions to my list.
-en used to be a standard plural ending in English. The only common occurences of it nowadays are “oxen”, “children” (which is actually doubly-pluralized, with “childer” once also being plural), and “brethren”. One occasionally still encounters “shoen” as the plural of “shoe”, in old song lyrics and the like, and “vaxen” (plural of a Vax computer) and “sistren” (plural of “sister”, analogous to “brethren”) are sometimes used facetiously. “Vixen”, a female fox, is also related to this, but nowadays, “vixen” has become the singular, with the plural being the unremarkable “vixens”.
[QUOTE=Chronos]
-en used to be a standard plural ending in English. The only common occurences of it nowadays are “oxen”, “children” (which is actually doubly-pluralized, with “childer” once also being plural), and “brethren”. One occasionally still encounters “shoen” as the plural of “shoe”, in old song lyrics and the like, and “vaxen” (plural of a Vax computer) and “sistren” (plural of “sister”, analogous to “brethren”) are sometimes used facetiously. “Vixen”, a female fox, is also related to this, but nowadays, “vixen” has become the singular, with the plural being the unremarkable “vixens”.
[/QUOTE]
I’d just like to take this opportunity to say that the plural form of “emacs”, often given as “emacsen”, sets my teeth on edge.