"Financials" Not in OED

[Baker, John]

        Nor I.  "Financials" is a shortened form of "financial
statements," but while you could say "a financial statement" (albeit
with some ambiguity unless there is disambiguating context, since "a
financial statement" could mean a balance sheet, an income statement, or
something else), I don't think you can say "a financial."


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Dan Goncharoff
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2011 11:42 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "Financials" Not in OED

I do not recall ever seeing the word in the singular.
DanG


On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 5:38 PM, Shapiro, Fred
<fred.shapiro at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      "Financials" Not in OED
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>
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>
> I notice that "financial" as a noun, usually appearing in the plural
to
> mean "financial information or data about a company, as balance sheets
and
> price-earnings ratio" (www.dictionary.com), does not appear in OED or
> Merriam-Webster.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
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