A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia, Page 14
PLURALS
ALMS is a word with no singular form. Other such words are: AGENDA, IDES, BRACES, CATTLE, CLOTHES, EAVES, MARGINALIA, PANTS, PLIERS, SCISSORS, SHORTS, and TROUSERS (although there is “trouser leg”) [Stuart Kidd]. Strictly speaking, Ides is not plural, although it is singular or plural in construction, according to MWCD10. Agenda is not plural although its origin is the plural of the Latin agendum.
CORPS has the plural spelled the same way as the singular but pronounced differently. Other such words are CHASSIS, BOURGEOIS, RENDEZVOUS, PINCE-NEZ, FAUX PAS, GARDEBRAS, PRÉCIS [Keith C. Ivey in alt.usage.english, Stuart Kidd].
CARES, LARGES, TIMELINES and PRINCES are examples of plural words that become singular words (caress, largess, timeliness, and princess) with another added S. Some other words which become singular words with the addition of an S are: abbes, abys, adventures, bas, bos, bras, bulgines, chapes, cites, cosines, deadlines, esquires, fras, gamines, gaus, glassines, gues, hos, kavas, kos, las, los, lownes, marques, mas, millionaires, mis, moras, mos, multimillionaires, nervines, ogres, pas, pis, pos, posses, prelates, pros, sagenes, saltines, shines, sightlines, squires, tartines, tas, tyrranes, usures, zebras, camas, careles, carles, cos, discus, dos, dures, es, footles, garbles, handles, his, homines, hurtles, inkles, kermes, kindles, koumis, koumys, mes, mus, needles, poses, princes, pus, restles, rumples, rustles, tackles, tailles, treadles, tres, wattles, windles, wis, amas, amis, as, ases, bibles, bus [Stuart Kidd, Ted Clarke, Mike Turniansky, Bill Webster].
FOLK and FOLKS are both plurals, with no singular form [Stuart Kidd].
KINE (an archaic plural of COW) qualifies as a plural that shares no letters in common with its singular. Others are I/WE, ME/US. If one overlooks the change in case, then US can be considered a plural of I, in which case it makes a curious reversal of the usual rule that a word ending in -us pluralizes to -i [Mark D. Lew].
SERIES is a singular word ending in S, but its plural is identical. Others are SPECIES, CONGERIES, SHAMBLES, KUDOS and PREMISES [Stuart Kidd].
[In older dictionaries, KUDOS (pronounced koo-doss) was a singular word. However, widespread mispronunciation of the word has led some modern dictionaries to list KUDO as the singular form created by back-formation. Mark D. Lew points out, “The same process is underway with BICEP, as a back-formed singular of the supposed plural BICEPS. A word which completed this process long ago is PEA; originally PEASE was the singular.”]
HAIR is a word that as a singular suggests more than its plural [Gary Rosenberg].
JINNI is a singular form that becomes shorter when pluralized to JINN [Stuart Kidd].
OS has three distinct meanings: bone; opening; and ridge. Each of these has a different plural form: OSSA, ORA, and OSAR [Stuart Kidd].
NECROPOLIS is a singular word ending in S that becomes plural when the S is removed [Stuart Kidd].
AXE and AXIS are two different words, yet share the same plural, AXES. Other such words are BASE and BASIS (BASES), CRUCE and CRUX (CRUCES), ELLIPSE and ELLIPSIS (ELLIPSES), FORTE and FORTIS (FORTES), GENIE and GENIUS (GENII), HALF and HALVE (HALVES), LANCE and LANX (LANCES), SOL and SOLE (SOLES), TAX and TAXIS (TAXES), UGLI and UGLY (UGLIES). Plurals with three singulars include ASSES (AS, ASS and ASSE [an African fox]), LISSES (LIS, LISS and LISSE), and MESDAMES (MADAM, MADAME and MRS.) [Stuart Kidd, Ralph Beaman].
PARASHAH has six plurals: PARASHOTH, PARASHOT, PARASHIOTH, PARASHIOT, PARSHIOTH and PARSHIOT.
XHOSA has the five plurals XHOSA, XHOSAS, AMAXHOSA, AMAXOSA and AMAKOSA.
Some words with four different plurals are LIRA [Israeli] (LIROTH, LIROT, LIRES, LIRE), NECROPOLIS (NECROPOLISES, NECROPOLES, NECROPOLEIS, NECROPOLI), RHINOCEROS (RHINOCEROSES, RHINOCEROS, RHINOCERI and RHINOCEROTES), SEUDAH (SEUDOTH, SEUDOT, SEUDOS, SEUDAHS) and SKI (SKIS, SKI, SKIES and SKIIS) [Ralph Beaman, Murray Pearce, Dmitri Borgmann].
Some words with three different plurals are OCTOPUS (OCTOPI, OCTOPODES, OCTOPUSES), DRACHMA (DRACHMAS, DRACHMAE, DRACHMI), FELLAH (FELLAHEEN, FELLAHIN, FELLAHS), MITZVAH (MITZVOTH, MITZVOT, MITZVAHS) [Rick Shepherd].
Some other interesting plurals are: ADAI/ADAIZE, AIRE/AIRIG, ALA/ALAE, ARMFUL/ARMSFUL, ARPEGGIO/ARPEGGI, BAN/BANI, BANDIT/BANDITTI, BEAU/BEAUX, BILDUNGSROMAN/BILDUNGSROMANE, BROTHER/BRETHREN, CALPULLI/CALPULLEC, CARMEN/CARMINA, CHALLAH/CHALLOT, CHATEAU/CHATEAUX, CHERUB/CHERUBIM, CHETTY/CHETTYARS, CHILD/CHILDREN, CHIMAN/CHIMANES, COMES/COMITES, CRUS/CRURA, CYWYDD/CYWYDDAU, DERRING-DO/DERRINGS-DO, DIE/DICE, DIVA/DIVE, DUKHOBOR/DUKHOBORTSY, EAU/EAUX, EAVE/OAVES, EISTEDDFOD/EISTEDDFODAU, ENGLYN/ENGLYNION, EPHEMERIS/EPHEMERIDES, ERF/ERVEN, ERG/AREG, EYRIR/AURAR, FALAJ/AFLAJ, FAQIH/FUQAHA, FEIS/FEISEANNA, FILI/FILID, FOOT/FEET, FORTIS/FORTES, GNOME/GNOMAE, GOOSE/GEESE, GOOSEFOOT/GOOSEFOOTS, GOY/GOYIM, GROSZ/GROSZY, HALER/HALERU, HALF/HALVES, HEMIEPES/HEMIEPE, ITER/ITINERA, JAJMAN/JAJMANI, JUGER/JUGERA, KACHE/KA, KHARIJITE/KHAWARIJ, KIBBUTZ/KIBBUTZIM, KOLKHOZ/KOLKHOZY, KOMONDOR/KOMONDOROCK, KORUNA/KORUN, KRASIS/KRASEIS, KRONE/KRONEN, KUVASZ/KUVASZOK, KWAPA/QUAPAW, LACUNAR/LACUNARIA, LANDSMAN/LANDSLEIT, LANX/LANCES, LILANGENI/EMALANGENI, LIRA/LIROTH, LOTI/MALOTI, MADAM(E)/MESDAMES, MALAYALI/MALAYALIM, MAN/MEN, MATZO/MATZOT, MEISTERGESANG/MEISTERGESÄNGE, MEO/MIAO, MGANGA/WAGANGA, MIDRASH/MIDRASHOT, MIXTECA/MIXTECO, MONGOOSE/MONGOOSES, NEVER-WAS/ NEVER-WERES, OPUS/OPERA, ORDO/ORDINES, ORNIS/ORNITHES, OX/OXEN, PACTIO/PACTIONES, PAPIOPIO/PAPIO, PARIES/PARIETES, PEA/PEASE, PENNY/PENCE, PFEFFERNUSS/PFEFFERNUESSE, PHALANX/PHALANGES, PHASM/PHASMATA, PRUTAH or PRUTA/PRUTOTH or PRUTOT, PULI/PULIK, QINAH/QINOTH, QINDAR/QINDARKA, QUADRANS/QUADRANTES, RAS/RASAS, ROTL/ARTAL, RUBAI/RUBAIYAT, SAMANID/SAMANI, SASSANID/SASSANIDAE, SENTE/LISENTE, SERAGLIO/SERAGLI, SERAPH/SERAPHIM, SHADCHAN/SHADCHONIM, SHARIF/ASHRAF, SHEGETZ/SHKOTZIM, SHTETL/SHTETLACH, SIGNORE/SIGNORI, SKI/SKIIS, SLUBBI/SLEYB, STILL LIFE/STILL LIFES, SUMU/SUMO, TALISMAN/TALISMANS, TALITH/TALALITHIM, TALMOUSE/TALMOUSES, THIS/THISSES, TORTE/TORTEN, ULCUS/ULCERA, USHABTI/USHABTIU, VAS/VADES, VAS/VASA, VILA/VILY, VIS/VIRES, VOLKSDEUTSCHER/VOLKSDEUTSCHE, VOX/VOCES, WOMAN/WOMEN, WUNDERKIND/WUNDERKINDER, XHOSA/AMAXHOSA, YAD/YADAYIM [Stuart Kidd, Philip Bennett, Jonathan Hoefler, Dan Tilque, Paul Giaccone, Ed Robbeloth, Rick Shepherd, Charles Turner, Ralph Beaman].
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SCRABBLE WORDS
According to Craig Rowland, Scrabble in North America recognizes five words which, if spelled over two triple-word score squares, and with a premium-scoring tile on the double-letter score square, will award the player 392 points on a single play. These five words are: OXAZEPAM, BEZIQUES, CAZIQUES, MEZQUITS, and MEZQUITE.
According to Tony Kalayzich, QUIZZIFY beats the above words, scoring 410. He reports this word is in Official Scrabble Words, based on Chambers. However, another reader of this page writes, “Theoretically this is correct. However, the game only gives out one Z, and so the other Z would have to be a blank, which is worth nothing. This is why the other high-scoring words, such as BEZIQUES, MEZQUITE and even OXYPHENBUTAZONE, have only one Z. And one Q, for that matter. QUIZZIFY on its own scores 31 points (in order, 10-1-1-10-0-1-4-4). Assuming it is placed in the top-left, the first Z will be on a double letter score and so the word will then be worth 41, triple it and you get 123, triple it again and you get 369. According to my calculations, if there were two 10-point Zs the word would actually be worth 459. I’m not sure where 410 came from; as I say, I could be wrong.” In Nov. 2005, a reader of this page writes, “The actual point total for QUIZZIFY would be 419 — the above point breakdown does not take into account the 50-point bonus awarded in Scrabble for using all seven letters from one’s rack. (369 + 50 = 419)”
John Chew says that OXYPHENBUTAZONE is the highest-scoring word known under American tournament Scrabble rules (OSPD+MWCD). It can score 1778 under suitably contrived circumstances listed and credited in the Scrabble FAQ. The highest-scoring opening plays are MUZJIKS (128) in OSPD and QUARTZY (126) or SQUEEZY (126) in OSW.
Bruce D. Wilner says if we include eight-letter “bingos” that use all seven letters on one’s rack plus a letter already on the board, then WHIZBANG, QUETZALS, and HIGHJACK score an incredible 374 points for a single play if the highest-point tile is on a light blue square and both the first and last letters are on red squares. QUIXOTIC and MUSQUASH are right behind, scoring 356 and 338, respectively.
According to James Bartlett, the highest scoring word is QUARTZY, which will score 164 points if played across a red triple-word square with the Z on a light blue double-letter square. It will score 162 points if played across two pink double-word squares with the Q and the Y on those squares. BEZIQUE and CAZIQUE are next with a possible 161 points. All three words score an extra 50 points for having seven letters and therefore emptying the letter rack in one go.
Other words yielding high scores are ZYXOMMA (which is not in OSPD) and POPQUIZ.
QI (a life force in Chinese medicine) appears in Chambers. Barry Harridge says, “Its introduction threw the Scrabble world into a tailspin, with some players arguing that the Q should no longer be worth 10 points.” Bruce D. Wilner says, “Not only do they allow QI in the U.K., they also allow ZO (a type of hornless cattle). This makes playing U. K. Scrabble much less of a strategic challenge than U. S. Scrabble, which features a host of “blocking tiles,” i.e., tiles that cannot form 2-letter words and effectively block off opportunities for your opponent.
ETAERIO (an aggregate or cluster fruit such as the raspberry) is the most likely seven letter word to appear on a Scrabble rack [Stuart Kidd].
John Chew reports the plural ETHYLENEDIAMINETETRAACETATES is the longest word in his electronic Scrabble lexicon. (However, he did not explain where on the Scrabble board the word fits!)
The Q without U words accepted in the U. S. Scrabble list are: QAT, QAID, QOPH, FAQIR, QANAT, TRANQ, QINDAR, QINTAR, QWERTY, SHEQEL, QINDARKA, and SHEQALIM (alternate plural of SHEQEL). The combined US/UK list (SOWPODS) adds (from Chambers Dictionary), with their plurals: BUQSHA, BURQA, INQILAB, MBAQANGA, MUQADDAM, QABALAH, QADI, QAIMAQAM, QALAMDAN, QASIDA, QI, QIBLA, QIGONG, QINGHAOSU, QIS, QIVIUT, QWERTIES, QWERTYS, SUQ, TALAQ, TRANQ, TSADDIQIM, TSADDIQ, TZADDIQIM, TZADDIQ, UMIAQ, WAQF, and YAQONA [Stuart Kidd].
[Some words containing Q and U but not the QU sequence are QIVIUT, UMIAQ, and BUQSHA.]