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<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> The British "quid" seems to be</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">used in the singular nowadays to my knowledge: 15 quid.</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>yes, generally so, Fritz, but the Brits also use the phrase "quids in", meaning "in the money" or "flush". I can't think of any other usage of the plural form.<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#2A2EFF">Another interesting bunch from the singular/plural standpoint is</FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#2A2EFF">diseases.</FONT></DIV><DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>But I wonder whether the disease plurals are not perhaps false plurals. I've got diabetes, but a diabete would be some kind of jokey usage (which of course, thinking about it, doesn't at all invalidate it). Although words like pox and mumps and measles are AS in origin, maybe some kind of Graeco medicinal influence has crept in.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#1821FF">I noticed it on </FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#1821FF">a sign saying "Tucson Tire Sales", where the plural form indicates a</FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#1821FF">place where something is sold. Also, more abstractly, it can be used</FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#1821FF">as a field of work, as in "John is in accounting, Jim is in sales."</FONT></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span">This is simply metonymy, I think, substituting the specific <I>area</I> of work for the entire job or workplace.</SPAN></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Simon Wickham-Smith<BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>---</DIV><DIV>Körnerstraße 1, 01407 Leipzig, Germany</DIV><DIV>cell: 0049 (0)1627 325868</DIV><DIV><A href="http://www.qamutiik.net">http://www.qamutiik.net</A></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV></SPAN></DIV><BR></DIV></DIV>
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