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

[Peter A. McGraw]

--On Thursday, July 07, 2005 5:23 PM -0400 "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
wrote:

>         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.

It's perhaps equally disappointing that the words cited in the original
query, "deer" and "aircraft", are also not examples of a plurale tantum,
since they appear in both singular and plural--they just happen to have the
same form for both.

Peter Mc.

*****************************************************************
Peter A. McGraw       Linfield College        McMinnville, Oregon
******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ************************