From: R A Brown <[log in to unmask]>

> No, as a plural, surely, just like the French do: 'les spaghettis'. We 
> had a French student staying with us once who habitually carried this 
> habit over into English and, when cooking, would tell us the "The 
> spaghetties are ready." Note also the plural verb - which would be used 
> in Italian also.

I could live with this, sans "s". Man, talk about overanalyzing. But if "pease" and "cherries" get reanalyzed...wake up and smell the pease porridge.

> >>BTW I've commonly seen 'grafitti' and even 'grafitty' - I kid you not
> >>{sigh}

"Papparazzi" used in the singular. Okay, if it went the way of "spaghetti": "the papparazzi is/are a nuisance". But no: "Such and such celebrity kicked such and such a papparazzi (not papparazzo) in the face for an unflattering photograph." The joys of living in interesting times while things are being reanalyzed. And "au jus!". Some local (by which I mean estadounidense) peddler talks about a sandwich served with its own heaping megagallon of fresh-cooked au jus. The noun is "jus," people! "Toys 'R' (backwards) Us" doesn't bother me (discussed recently), but the "N" (backwards) (and I saw some other Russian letter ("D?") being used to show a music thing was "edgy" does. I didn't scream "O tempora, o mores!" about "qwinna" to "kvinna" or "zoowel" to "zowel". It's capricious, I know (maybe Brits are writhing over my use of "analyze" for "analyse"). Language is organic, I know. But couldn't some of these shifts occur after I'm firmly entrenched in the cold, cold ground?

Kou