singular debris?

[A. Vine]

So, would several of these "authorities" be called "pompous donkeys" ?

:-}

Peter McGraw wrote:
>
> Many years ago I read, in Saturday Review or some other such
> publication that periodically printed such pieces, an article by one of
> those self-appointed "authorities" who write compendia of prescriptive
> prejudices that are accepted as gospel on "correct English."
>
> (Obviously *I'm* not prejudiced!)
>
> Anyway, said "authority" (who shall remain anonymous because I've
> forgotten who it was) argued that it was "incorrect" to use "people" as
> a plural for "person" because the former could not be derived from the
> latter by adding a suffix.