singular debris?

[Gregory {Greg} Downing]

At 08:59 AM 7/20/99 -0500, you wrote:
>When did debris become singular? Or has it been singular and is
>its use as a plural newer? In the reporting I have seen (Chicago
>Tribune) I have noticed several uses of a subject debris with a
>singular verb--and that jars. There were also, in the same article,
>and, if my memory serves, in the same paragraph, uses of debris
>with a plural verb.
>
>Barbara Need
>University of Chicago--Linguistics
>

Is the s at the end of debris a plural marker? Perhaps some folks have taken
it that way, but historically or etymologically, isn't "debris" just a
French verbal noun deriving regularly from a French verb whose stem ends in
s? I'm not sure, but that's my impression.


Greg Downing/NYU, at greg.downing at nyu.edu or gd2 at is2.nyu.edu