Sunday, July 27, 2008

Pesky Plurals

I was commenting on another blog last night about how I used to draw little pegasuses all over my school papers. That's one of those words that doesn't really have a comfortable plural. "Pegasuses" and "pegasi" both look (and sound) awkward. Originally, of course, there was only one winged horse, and his name was Pegasus. No need to pluralize.

I was amused by the circumlocution in Disney's Fantasia. In the introduction to the Pastoral sequence, the announcer mentions unicorns and centaurs, and then says, "Pegasus, the flying horse, and his entire family." Ha. They didn't know what to do with it either.

Reminds me of the story about the guy who wanted to order two mongooses, but wasn't sure what the plural was, so he wrote, "Send me a mongoose. And while you're at it, make it two."

On a completely unrelated note, we are teaching Kate to say, "Help! Help! I'm being repressed!"

10 comments:

Heather T. said...

*lol*

Anonymous said...

lol. And for which situations is Kate needing to say that phrase?

Pamster said...

Excellent parenting choice!

Mimi said...

Good observation.

"You can't have babies" "Don't oppress me" is my favorite exchange.

. said...

Ha! Think of the LO when she does say it lol.

Expatriate Buckeyes said...

Of course you know the proper plural of Hoose is Heese. Tee hee!

I'd love to hear a recording of Kate saying her new phrase. :)

Kathey said...

We loved the plural stuff. Dad really laughed when I read it to him. I also like JB's "Heese"

Congratulations on 3 fun years of blogging. Glad Kate's nose is better.

And how is Kate being repressed these days? ^o^

--M

Amy Sorensen said...

LOL...I really like "pegasi." I remember when I was teaching, the plural that always threw me off was more than one thesaurus. "thesauruses" sounds like you just have a really bad lisp, but if I said "thesauri" they'd look at me like I was an alien. Of course, they did that often. I got used to it! ;) Hope you are doing well, glad the nose is better, and happy blogiversary!

mycattripoli said...

another family who loves monte python! yes- you guys must be cool to hang out with- ok- we will teach our girls how to say it too...

Anonymous said...

"Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony."

Wonderful discussion on Pesky Plurals!

-Aaron