Q: 'die', 'dice'

[Ross Clark (FOA LING)]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Hopper [mailto:ph1u at andrew.cmu.edu]
> Sent: Sunday, 8 April 2001 7:29 a.m.
> To: HISTLING at VM.SC.EDU
> Subject: Re: Q: 'die', 'dice'
>
>
> ----------------------------Original
> message----------------------------
> Growing up in the south of England (Surrey and Sussex), I had
> never heard
> the singular "die" until my early teens, and then only in the
> expression
> "the die is cast".
>

Only by conscious effort can I remind myself that this expression has to do
with throwing dice. My first interpretation was that it had to do with
putting hot metal into a mold, which after all is an equally suitable
metaphor for taking an irrevocable step, though perhaps it lacks the
implication of uncertain outcome. A childhood (or rather adolescent)
misunderstanding, not exactly a mondegreen, but something like it.

I add my vote (representing western Canada) to those for whom "dice" is both
singular and plural, and the business about "die" is just another odd fact
about language one happens to learn.

Ross Clark