Q: 'die', 'dice'

[Claire Bowern]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------

So do dice in a lot of board games!
(dice being for me (Australian) both singular and plural, although I can
confirm Alan's remarks that I thought die an irregular and optional plural
of singular "dice' for many years)

On Thu, 5 Apr 2001, Dorine S. Houston, Director wrote:

> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> But then, balls always come in pairs, so it would have to
> be plural.
>
> Dorine
>
> "Geoffrey S. Nathan" wrote:
>
> > ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> > At 07:31 AM 4/4/2001 -0400, Richard Coates wrote:
> > >I think it is curious that we dice with death and do not die with it. Few
> > >English verbs are derived by conversion from a plural noun - the ones I can
> > >think of are colloquial, perhaps British, and rude (e.g. _I've ballsed up_
> > >`I've made a mistake', `fouled things up').
> >
> > Still curiouser is the (apparently relatively) new form 'dicey'
> > (surprisingly cited by the OED no earlier than 1950).  For those who deal
> > in lexical phonology style strata this formation is OK but it certainly
> > shows the loss of any plural sense as early as mid 20th century.  On the
> > other hand, further to Richard's example, in American English there is
> > 'ballsy' (showing gumption, daring).
>
> --
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Dorine S. Houston, Director, Institute for Global Communication
> 1300 Spruce St., Philadelphia, PA 19107 USA  215-893-8400
> E-MAIL: dshouston at earthlink.net   FAX:  215-735-9718
>

______________________

Department of Linguistics
Harvard University
305 Boylston Hall
Cambridge, MA, 02138
USA

Ph:  (617) 547-3521
Fax: (617) 496-4447