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Nitpick of "Mayhem in a Pill"

PotomacBob 🚫

I finally got around to reading Chapter 93 of "Mayhem in a Pill." The name of the chapter is "Accept These Kudos." The chapter name gave me pause. Something didn't seem right. I finally remembered: A long time ago in a land far, far away, Mrs Higginbotham taught me sixth-grade English. In that class, we were taught that kudos is a synonym for "praise" and is not a plural word. Admittedly, my sixth-grade class was decades ago and things could have changed since then. or, alternatively, Mrs Higginbotham could have been wrong. Is there a consensus on whether kudos is plural?

Dominions Son 🚫

@PotomacBob

Here's what Merriam Webster has to say. As to whether or not your sixth grade teacher was wrong, that may depend on how old you are.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kudos

Kudos looks plural, but it didn't begin that way. Kudos is one of a number of Greek-derived English nouns ending in -os; as with pathos there are no subdivisions in the idea of the original kudos, and the term is used with some, not a. What separates kudos from pathos, however, is that it is often interpreted as plural, with its -s getting clipped off and kudo being applied as a singular noun, as in "a kudo to anyone who remembers that kudos is not a plural noun." Kudos the mass noun was adopted as British university slang in the early 1800s with its still-current pronunciation of KOO-dahss, but by the 1920s kudo was being used as a count noun, with kudos, pronounced as KOO-dohz, as its plural. You will see the newer, singular version of the word at its own entry.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Dominions Son

SOL counts:

kudo - 10 stories, in which at least three 'Kudo' is used as a name.

kudos - 312 stories.

I would advise an author not to use 'kudo', which is etymologically bogus (like 'octopi').

AJ

Diamond Porter 🚫

@awnlee jawking

Can I use bogu as the singular of bogus?

On a related note, I contend that the correct English plural of hippopotamus is hippos (pace, Flanders & Swan).

Replies:   Joe_Bondi_Beach
Joe_Bondi_Beach 🚫

@Diamond Porter

Can I use bogu as the singular of bogus?

Yes, as long as you don't confuse it with bougi.

~ JBB

Michael Loucks 🚫

@awnlee jawking

I would advise an author not to use 'kudo', which is etymologically bogus (like 'octopi').

Three accepted versions of the plural of octopus:

Octopusses
Octopodes
Octopi

If I recall correctly, 'octopi' was actually the first of the three used. Being the pedant I am, I use 'octopodes'. The most common vernacular usage is 'octopusses'.

Replies:   awnlee jawking  madnige
awnlee jawking 🚫

@Michael Loucks

The most common vernacular usage is 'octopusses'.

Google N-grams reports being unable to find it. It found octopuses though.

AJ

Replies:   Michael Loucks
Michael Loucks 🚫

@awnlee jawking

It found octopuses though.

Yeah, typo on my part.

madnige 🚫

@Michael Loucks

Being the pedant I am, I use 'octopodes'.

Surely that should be octapodes, using the Greek spelling of the base with the Greek pluralisation.

@awnlee jawking

Google N-grams reports being unable to find it. It found octopuses though.

Won't it be octopussies here?

Replies:   Michael Loucks
Michael Loucks 🚫

@madnige

Won't it be octopussies here?

Maud Adams and her girl gang! πŸ˜›

Replies:   i_like2_sail2
i_like2_sail2 🚫

@Michael Loucks

Didnt Nadya Suleman end up naming her vag "octopussy" after she popped 8 kids out of it?

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Dominions Son

I've always used "kudos", as it's typically referring to multiple congratulations, often over several years or decades, so it's similar to applause, and who says "applauses"?

That said, in many concerts, the singer will finish, wait for the audience to demand they return, then they continue to milk it for four or five different times, which seems more ego than anything else. If you return to the stage, why not just stay there and finish the rest of the set?

Tom D 🚫

@PotomacBob

Not to be confused with the African antelope.

Replies:   jimq2
jimq2 🚫

@Tom D

Or the imported weed, kudzu.

REP 🚫

@PotomacBob

Language evolves.

At one time "kudos' was a singular noun. Now it is used as a plural noun.

Historically, that may have been wrong, but as I said language evolves. What is important is how it is used today.

helmut_meukel 🚫

@PotomacBob

The Wiktionary entry for kudos contains this remark:

Usage notes
The noun kudos was originally a mass noun, but in American English is now sometimes treated as a plural noun, either as a plurale tantum, or as the plural of a new noun kudo, contrary to the original Greek κῦδος (kΓ»dos), which is a singular noun. The American pronunciation implies this plural usage, which many authorities nevertheless consider erroneous.

HM.

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