The plural of ethos is not ethoi

[kvk]

I don't think they did anything to your son 'cept bring out what already was there.

Yeah, bringing out the eyes.

 

[TheBeautifulVoid2]

Until we can get more people to learn the word 'malus' as a tidy opposite to 'bonus', then I'm not even going to fight the plural-of-bonus battle.

My heart sank when, many years ago, I found that people were using "debuff" instead.

 

[Brownbeard]

I see it like this in ELF*:

ethos (s), ethos (p)
octopus (s), octopussies (p)

*English as Lingua Franca

 

[SirRoderick]

My heart sank when, many years ago, I found that people were using "debuff" instead.

Or, in some ludicrous display of inventiveness, "negative bonus"

 

[jcd000]

I really, really prefer Ancient Greek to Modern Greek. It's way more simple (even though generally Greek is pretty hard), modern Greek has all those weird pronuciation stuff, like beta not being pronounced as 'b', but always 'v'. Preposterous!

I daresay that if you are German (supposition due to your forum name) Ancient Greek should be much easier for you than Modern Greek (due to syntax)

 

[ComradeSomo]

I daresay that if you are German (supposition due to your forum name) Ancient Greek should be much easier for you than Modern Greek (due to syntax)

Hence why half of all Classical scholarship is done in German, and many of the greatest scholars and archaeologists going back a couple of centuries have been German.

 

[Ezumiyr]

I disagree!
English words with english rules. Greek words with greek rules. This is better, in my opinion!
I think in this way maybe because i'm italian. We respect other languages and their rules. In doubt, we use only singular.
We say "one computer, two computer" and not "two computeri ".
For grecism and latinism we use their rules, in fact!

In italian, "computer" is actually borrowed from english, and the english verd "to compute" is from old french "computer". "computer" is not a latin word. It would be "computator".

I think not. There is a logical difference (not too pronounced):
http://wikidiff.com/ethos/ethics

But ethics is also used in the dev diaries. And in the wiki, you can read "An ethos (also called ethics)". So I think we can use ethics.
I don't really like "ethoses" by the way. It's like if I said "echoeses" or "foots".

Also, a topic about weird plural on paradox forums, and nobody said the word "platypus" ?

 

[telge2]

Agreed, therefore it is octopus, octopuses

Also bacterium, bacteriums.

 

[Xylophone]

Also bacterium, bacteriums.

Octupuses is fine, but its bacteria.

On the other hand Money -> Monies.

 

[Susarian]

Ethos is a greek 3rd declension neuter word. The plural -oi is attached to greek 1st declension masculine words. The greek plural of ethos is ethe. Can we just call them ethoses?

This is important to me. Pretty please?

I understand your pain. But not your solution.

Since ethos is used to describe the distinguishing character, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a person, group, or institution there can't be a plural..it encompasses the entire belief system, etc. not a single belief. A group can't have more than one distinguishing character, since distinguishing character encompasses all the individual bits that go to make up the distinguishing character. The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English lists it as a singular noun. If you actually want to compare/contrast constitute parts, you will need to be specific (i.e. type them out) in order to be grammatically correct. For another example, see the usage of the word "Moose".

If you wish to conjugate Greek, argue loan word inclusion, etc., that is a different topic.

 

[FlavourBeans]

My heart sank when, many years ago, I found that people were using "debuff" instead.

Yeah. That got stolen from MMO vocab, if I'm not mistaken. Buffs and debuffs. A SHAAAAAME :<

 

[barny]

My heart sank when, many years ago, I found that people were using "debuff" instead.

Still, I would really like to know the plural in English. In German it is Bonus - Boni and Malus - Mali...

 

[Ifreann]

I say we call them ethels.

 

[telge2]

Octupuses is fine, but its bacteria.

On the other hand Money -> Monies.

I know bacteria is the right form. I was referring to EmperorZelos, who reffered to Cruxador's comment: "it's an English word now so we should use English declination". EmperorZelos sarcastically pointed out that a lot of loan-words in English kept their Greek or Latin declination, and is currently used that way, and I wanted to give an other example to this.

 

[TheBeautifulVoid2]

I say we call them ethels.

Ethenes.

 

[Deaghaidh]

I've always insisted the plural of walrus should be walri. Not making much headway with that.

 

[Gott mit uns]

I daresay that if you are German (supposition due to your forum name) Ancient Greek should be much easier for you than Modern Greek (due to syntax)

I'm actually a Croat (don't ask why I have that username, I don't know either, and I wish I could change it) which makes it even easier for me to learn Ancient Greek since in our language we pronounce a lot of things "literally", with an exception for č, ć, đ, lj… and some other things.

 

[TheGrinningMan]

Usually this is the point where I say, "and this is why my ancestors sacked Rome", but "ethos" is Greek, not Latin, so I need to figure out a different standard-issue shitpost for this situation.

 

[blakh]

I understand your pain. But not your solution.

Since ethos is used to describe the distinguishing character, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a person, group, or institution there can't be a plural..it encompasses the entire belief system, etc. not a single belief. A group can't have more than one distinguishing character, since distinguishing character encompasses all the individual bits that go to make up the distinguishing character. The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English lists it as a singular noun. If you actually want to compare/contrast constitute parts, you will need to be specific (i.e. type them out) in order to be grammatically correct. For another example, see the usage of the word "Moose".

If you wish to conjugate Greek, argue loan word inclusion, etc., that is a different topic.

Well if Magic can make target an adjective, surely we can make ethos countable. After all, dictionaries tell you what is common usage, and you can change that if you only believe in yourself very very hard.

 

[BrokenSky]

Yeah, I don't even speak Greek but "ethoi" sounds dumb as all heck. If we're speaking English, it uses English rules.

English doesn't have one set of rules, it has the rule-book equivalent of Frankenstein's monster. Ethoi is a perfectly cromulent word.