Dr L.‘s discourse on opera reminded me of a gradual change I’ve noticed in the last ten years - Latin plurals being converted to singular nouns.
Agenda seems to have long since completed the transition. No-one (except me when I’m bored) says "What are the agenda for this meeting?" or "Moving on to the next agendum ..."
Data is well on the way - only a few people now contrast a single datum with several data.
Now I see, particularly in US usage, that criteria and phenomena are more and more being treated as singular nouns (presumably with conventional English plurals criterias and phenomenas, though I’ve never seen this.)
Anyone aware of any others that are on the same slippery slope?
Media is the one that sticks in my craw. And would likely so do in McLuhan’s were he around to read it.
The phenomenon (!) is not new - one never hears of a group of super-bright people being called genii.
The AHD prefers auditoriums over auditoria. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard the latter construction, though I’ve probably seen it in print. Conversely, the AHD prefers radii over radiuses. Quizzed on it, I’m not sure how many people, North Americans in particular, would identify bacterium as the singular of bacteria.
Many medical terms are straight imports from Latin, and strictly speaking should bear Latin plurals. I don’t know to what extent, if any, these plurals have ‘degraded’ to English plurals in daily professional parlance.
Perhaps we should issue a few memoranda/memorandums on the subject.
Oh gosh!
I’ve been so proud over the years that I always got "data" and "criterion" and so forth ‘right’, in an effort to demonstrate that not all Americans are ‘ignorant and uncultured’, which is the usual assumption here in Germany. (Talking and writing like an old fogey is fun, after all.) But now you’ve caught me out! I never realized, never heard or even imagined that "agenda" is plural! :-[
I guess that goes to show that "agenda" is far gone indeed.
What to do now? Well for one thing, I can start correcting the "agendas" in the papers my colleagues give check for English mistakes… ;D
Wasn’t so much interested in Latin plurals becoming English plurals (stadiums, geniuses, memorandums, etc), which is a pretty well established trend, but in the use of the conventional Latin plural word as if it were an English singular:
This data is very interesting It’s a very unusual phenomena I’ve never heard that criteria used before
Agoraphile has provided an other example I’d forgotten about:
[quote author=granthutchison link=board=grammar;num=1040293464;start=0#4 date=12/19/02 at 13:16:17]I’ve never heard that criteria used before
Technically, that could be single (used incorrectly) or plural. You can’t tell without a context, because the sentence structure would support either one.
The advent of the personal computer and its subsequent proliferation in the workplace has encouraged the use of the term criteria almost exclusively.
Here’s a more clearly incorrect use of the term, courtesy of the Cambridge Data Systems website:
To select more than one criteria within a list, use the Control key (or the Apple key on a Macintosh) while clicking on items.
But if you search Google for "one criteria", you will be rewarded with a plethora of results…
[quote author=tcward link=board=grammar;num=1040293464;start=0#5 date=12/19/02 at 14:30:44]Technically, that could be single (used incorrectly) or plural. You can’t tell without a context, because the sentence structure would support either one.
How so? The plural usage would be those criteria. Or am I missing another interpretation of the sentence?
[quote author=tcward link=board=grammar;num=1040293464;start=0#8 date=12/19/02 at 16:54:37]Couldn’t some of these nouns be acceptably treated as mass nouns?
Sounds like that’s where you were coming from - which would be a new one on me, and another interesting change in usage in its own right.
But the thing that originally caught my attention was the one criteria type of usage you quoted.
[quote author=granthutchison link=board=grammar;num=1040293464;start=0#4 date=12/19/02 at 13:16:17]Wasn’t so much interested in Latin plurals becoming English plurals . . .
Oops. Pay attention, Agoraphile. (SFX: Smack!)
OK, I rescind all of my post save the references to media and bacteria.
[quote author=granthutchison link=board=grammar;num=1040293464;start=0#9 date=12/19/02 at 17:22:08]Sounds like that’s where you were coming from - which would be a new one on me, and another interesting change in usage in its own right.
But the thing that originally caught my attention was the one criteria type of usage you quoted.
Yes, I do seem to be caught in a vexing position of wanting to be accurate and wanting to be understood.
"This data is very interesting" is very interesting. I can’t remember hearing (or reading recently) "these data are very interesting." "Data" seems to be a Latin plural that has made the transition in usage to a group noun.
"Bacteria," I would think, is on its way, though not as far. Most literate people would skirt the issue, in conversation anyway, by referring to "bacteria" rather than "a bacteria" in your sentence, instead of coming up with "bacterium."
Yes. That seems to be precisely its most common current usage.
I’ve tried to come up with more examples of this phenomena, (just kidding) Grant, but I’m coming up blank. It’s the most widely used, (useful) words that are bearing the brunt of this shift. I mean, who ever uses effluvia, let alone effluvium? Which makes me wonder whether a query aimed at some medical community discussion site, for example, might not unearth the very disgruntled MD needed here.
