troops

[Dave Hause]

"Troop" or "trooper" tends to be cavalry slang for soldier, partially
adopted by the airborne for paratroopers.  Just to add confusion, "troop" is
also the cavalry term for what other branches would call a company, around
100-160 soldiers.
Dave Hause, dwhause at jobe.net
Ft. Leonard Wood, MO
----- Original Message -----
From: "Arnold Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>


i was startled to hear, on NPR's Sunday Morning Edition yesterday, the
news that "seven troops" had been rescued in iraq.  "troops" is for me
(and, from a quick review of the big reference grammars, rather more
generally) formally plural but uncountable. (nobody can say "only one
troop was captured.")  so how had the writers fallen into this?