The plural of "hero"

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

Small wonder that Dan Quail was confused about "potatoe"!
------Original Message------
From: Joel S. Berson
Sender: ADS-L
To: ADS-L
ReplyTo: ADS-L
Subject: [ADS-L] The plural of "hero"
Sent: Sep 8, 2010 11:15 AM

In the flavor of some recent messages:

Having momentarily become muddleheaded in my dotage and typed
"heros", I consulted the authority of the age (not "aged") and
Googled.  Not checking for other meanings for obvious reasons, I
found for "heroes" about 104,000,000 raw Web results -- but for
"heros" about 45,600,000.  Astounding.

The OED permits "heros" as the plural for the 1600s and 1700s -- but
only 9 times through 1697 (plus once from the Amer. Jrnl. Archaeol.,
which should have known better, and once for the sandwich).  It has
548 quotations containing "heroes" (unfiltered for meanings other
than the plural).

Joel

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org