-nym for Words the Same in Sing. and Pl.?

[Baker, John]

        There's no -nym, but what about plurale tantum?  According to
that surprisingly resourceful and frequently denounced source,
Wikipedia, "A plurale tantum (plural pluralia tantum) is a noun that
appears only in the plural and does not have a singular. Many languages
have pluralia tantum, for example the English word "scissors" is such."

        How disappointing to realize that "plurale tantum" is not itself
a plurale tantum.


John Baker




-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Alan Baragona
Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2005 5:07 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: -nym for Words the Same in Sing. and Pl.?

Nullopluromorphonym.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2005 4:58 PM
Subject: Re: -nym for Words the Same in Sing. and Pl.?


> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: -nym for Words the Same in Sing. and Pl.?
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> Nullopluronym ?
>
> JL
> Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jesse Sheidlower
> Subject: Re: -nym for Words the Same in Sing. and Pl.?
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> On Thu, Jul 07, 2005 at 04:40:30PM -0400, Grant Barrett wrote:
>> Is there a name along the lines of synonym, eponym, retronym, etc.,
>> for the category of words that have the same form whether they are
>> plural or singular? I'm thinking of words like "deer" and "aircraft."
>
> zero-derivonym?
>
> JTS
>
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