Q: 'die', 'dice'

[Larry Trask]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Nothing hangs on this: I'm just curious.  Is my native English becoming
obsolete in yet another respect?

Traditionally, a spotted cube used in playing certain games is called a
'die', with the uniquely irregular plural 'dice'.  This is still, I think,
the position in American English.  In British English, however, the
singular 'die' has almost wholly disappeared, and the singular form is now
'dice'.

American board games invariably instruct the player to 'throw a die', while
British games equally invariably instruct the player to 'throw a dice'.
Most Britons do not even know that 'die' is another word for one of these
cubes, and most of them are flummoxed when I say something like "throw a
die", which they find utterly mysterious.  And most Britons do not
understand the origin of the expression 'the die is cast'.  British
dictionaries now enter the word under 'dice', and merely cite 'die' as a
less usual singular form.  Some years ago, I was playing Scrabble with a
very well-educated British woman, and she played DI, assuming that this
must be the spelling of the mysterious word she had often heard me use.

However, in the last few years, I've begun to hear 'throw a dice'
occasionally from Americans -- something which I'm pretty sure I never
heard when I was growing up in the States.  So, I'm wondering.  Is the
British usage now becoming established in the States?  Can anybody tell me
anything about this?  And, while I'm here, what about Canada, Australia,
the Caribbean, anywhere?  Are we users of 'die' a dying breed?  (Sorry.)


Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk

Tel: (01273)-678693 (from UK); +44-1273-678693 (from abroad)
Fax: (01273)-671320 (from UK); +44-1273-671320 (from abroad)