[Ads-l] teeming metropolies

[Clai Rice]

I posted it as a curiosity, because I am pretty sure I've never heard it 
before, having silently, and unreflectingly, read "metropoles" to align with 
"poles" rather than basis/bases or thesis/theses. The OED, though, states 
that singular "metropole" is a borrowing from French. It does not give a 
plural, but wouldn't the French plural align with "poles"? OED provides 
plurals for "metropolis" as: 16 metropolisses, 17 metropolis's, 18– 
metropolises, 19– metropoli. OED is not biased against Latinate plurals per 
se, as it gives pl. bases for basis and pl. theses /ˈθiːsiːz/ for thesis 
(don't know why bases doesn't get its own phonetic spelling?).

Granted, the Latinate plural is a tad more pronounceable than the Anglicized 
one.

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2018 8:36 PM
Subject: Re: teeming metropolies

The word came down from Greek through Latin, so both influences are 
possible.

On Tue, Mar 27, 2018, 8:44 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:

> Aha. And oops—missed Dan’s post.  So not faux then?  I stand
> corrected, and those responsible for the 20 hits don’t.  I had never
> actually encountered “metropoles” as a plural, and assumed the worst.
> In reparation, I’ll go eat some grilled octopodes.  Of course the
> weirdest part of “metropoles” is that it looks like it represents a
> trisyllabic rather than tetrasyllabic word, given the temptation to
> latch onto those -poles.
>
> LH
>
> P.S.  Actually it looks like the Greek plural would be “metropoleis”
> rather than “metropoles”, but close enough for (municipal) government 
> work.
>
> > On Mar 27, 2018, at 5:21 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >
> > You mean, "teeming metropoles", which I believe to be correct: is,
> > plural -es.
> >
> > On Tue, Mar 27, 2018, 5:02 PM Clai Rice <cxr1086 at louisiana.edu> wrote:
> >
> >> Heard on NPR today: "teeming metropolies",  rhymes with "monopolies".
> >>
> >> You can hear this at the NPR website for Here & Now, March 27,
> >> first
> hour,
> >> at 25:51. The discussion topic is Uber in Asia.
> >>
> >> https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510051/here-x26-now
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> The speaker is Roben Farzad, an Iranian American who moved to the
> >> US at age 2. He is an experienced broadcaster, currently the host
> >> of Full Disclosure on NPR1.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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

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