Talk:Maurice Cornforth
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I own the table which this fellow wrote his books on :) Anjow 12:42, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
- Far out! Zaslav 04:12, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
Plural of "conundrum": I have two seemingly strong reasons for thinking the best plural is "conundrums". (1) I have seen and heard this word in use over the past few decades and never, "well hardly ever", was it pluralized with "a" (and then it was in fun, as I remember). (2) I looked in 4 dictionaries. Two of them give no special plural, which meant the plural is formed with "s" (I verified this in one by checking "stratum", whose plural is specifically given as "strata"). The third (the oldest) gives the plural with "s", the fourth gives first the plural with s and second the plural with "a".
Some perhaps relevant remarks: (3) I recently read about a word ending with "um" (I wish I could remember it!) which is sometimes wrongly pluralized with "a", but due to how it derives from Latin (as a gerund), that is actually incorrect Latin. This shows that Latin "um" doesn't automatically pluralize to "a". (4) Many words that have been nativized into English take a plural in "s" at least optionally (that is, it's accepted) even if the plural with "a" is also used; e.g., "millenium". (5) The origin of "conundrum" seems to be something of a conundrum itself. (See a dictionary.) It isn't classical Latin. Zaslav 04:12, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
