Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2020 December 25

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December 25

Same-sounding word is plural and singular with different meanings

Is there a term for the case where the same word (or a close homophone) is the plural of one meaning and singular of another meaning. This is not a defective noun or other pattern where a word is singular and plural of the same meaning ("one deer" vs "many deer"). Consider:

• crew (singular) → crews (plural), which sounds like cruise (singular) → cruises (plural)
• bay → bays, base → bases

DMacks (talk) 22:51, 25 December 2020 (UTC)

people as a singular noun (synonymous with nation) and as a plural (synonymous with folks) have different meanings. I don't think I have encountered a term for homophones having different grammatical numbers. An example from German, with words that are even homonyms: Laute (singular) means "lute", but Laute is also the plural of Laut, meaning "sound".  --Lambiam 02:16, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

Not sure of any particular term used for it, but it seems to be some sort of convergent evolution of sounds; whether it's intentional or accidental is beyond me. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 🎄Happy Holidays!⛄ 04:18, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

DMacks -- I'm not sure that there's any standard term for this, but if you wanted to describe it, you could call it "inflection-induced homophony" or similar. AnonMoos (talk) 09:35, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

Someone emailed me a response also noting similar patterns with other suffixes, so I may as well note that here also their examples:

• knee → kneed, knead → kneaded
• tamp → tamper, tamper → tamperer

DMacks (talk) 09:48, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

• dough → doughs, doze → dozes.
• roo → roos, ruse → ruses. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 10:41, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

Homophones and nouns only:

• brew → brews, bruise → bruises.
• claw → claws, clause → clauses.
• cop → cops, copse → copses.
• cock → cocks, cox → coxes.
• dough → doughs, doze → dozes.
• guy → guys, guise → guises.
• paw → paws, pause → pauses.
• pro → pros, prose → proses.
• ray → rays, raise → raises.
• row → rows, rose → roses.

Nice Boxing day diversion, thanks. Bazza (talk) 11:10, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

Baize is a better fit with bays than base, at least in British English.

Also hays and haze might be allowed (but hay is usually a mass noun).

Hoes and hose (inspired by Four Candles).

Days and daze (see School Daze).

Alansplodge (talk) 14:44, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

Has anybody mentioned Trojan whores yet...? --CiaPan (talk) 14:54, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

Well done, it took me a moment. Alansplodge (talk) 15:02, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

@Alansplodge: Not my invention, actually. I'm not that fluent in English so I could make word plays by myself, let alone phonetic jokes :) To be honest, I just spotted it in some cartoon somewhere in the Web about a year or two ago. But I'm happy you like it. CiaPan (talk) 15:32, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

That must have been this: http://www.explosm.net/comics/1471/ (or some copy of it). --CiaPan (talk) 21:51, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

There's a riddle along those lines: There's a word that you can pluralize by adding 's' and then singularize it again by adding a second 's' and then pluralize yet again by adding 'es'. The word is 'prince'. Prince -> princes -> princess - princesses. Not quite your question, but in the ballpark. Matt Deres (talk) 15:08, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

Ooh, but that's also a neat one. Also care→cares→caress→caresses. DMacks (talk) 16:00, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

Not to mention bra - bras - brass - brasses.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 18:08, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

Shit. I knew I'd mess that up (I hate riddles). In the proper form, there's only one correct answer of course. Matt Deres (talk) 19:02, 26 December 2020 (UTC)