Kerry's sing. "troop"

[Wilson Gray]

FWIW, "... capture of ... forces" sounds rather strange to me, too. Of
course, the use of "troop" to designate a single individual sounded
strange, too, the first time that I heard it. It's quite possible
that, were I serving in today's military, this use of "forces" would
sound sompletely SOP.

-Wilson

On 11/9/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Kerry's sing. "troop"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> This sounds a little odd, but not as weird as nonhumorous singular "troop." I think it's been around for a long time, though OED doesn't notice it.
>
>   In Inglish you'll be able to say, "He was a force in World War VIII."
>
>   JL
> "Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "Mark A. Mandel"
> Subject: Re: Kerry's sing. "troop"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Coincidentally (I *refuse* to [mis]use "ironically"here!), I've just spotted
> a similar use of "forces" for counting individual (putative) combatants:
>
> [...] company was responsible for the capture of over 450 Iraqi and
> insurgent forces.
>
> In starting off this thread, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >>>
> If you want to be utterly inclusive and maximally concise, and you don't
> like the use of "warrior," you may find yourself at a loss for words. What
> to do ? You say "troop." "Troop" sounds very wrong - not to mention absurd -
> to us antediluvians, but it could be another vibrant precursor of tomorrow's
> everyday Inglish.
> <<<
>
> But here the reference has to be even broader, including persons who are not
> members of any formal armed service; hence (I speculate) "forces".
>
> BTW, this comes from a piece of military formal prose: "JUSTIFICATION FOR
> THE AWARD OF THE LEGION OF MERIT TO [rank] [name] / [regiment] [brigade]
> [division]".
>
> m a m
>
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--
Everybody says, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is knows how deep
a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our
race. He brought death into the world.

--Sam Clemens

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