The Innovative Usage Thread

[Radius Solis]

To be clear, I can use "dice" as both singular and plural as well. Sometimes. If I were rolling one, I would certainly say I was "rolling dice". But I don't think I can quite bring myself to use singular determiners or verbs with it; *This dice is purple sounds horrible.

However this could be due to my gaming history - in such sentences I'd be more likely to name the dice type. This d6 is purple and so forth.

(My dice are in fact purple.)

[Drydic]

Then they are good ones.

[clawgrip]

I still use "die". Maybe I'm old-fashioned. I once saw "a dice" in an English textbook and it made me cringe.

[----]

In my state, gambling is illegal, and my middle school wanted to discourage references to it, so whenever we used dice for games the teachers insisted on calling them "number cubes". Maybe we should just call them that all the time and avoid all this plurality mess.

[clawgrip]

How about a chance cube.

[Drydic]

Or we could not be terrible.

[clawgrip]

You need to relax and have a death stick.

[linguoboy]

Does anyone in real life say 'die' as the singular except prescriptivists who want something to correct other people on?

You've never spent any time with tabletop gamers, have you?

[Thry]

In my state, gambling is illegal, and my middle school wanted to discourage references to it, so whenever we used dice for games the teachers insisted on calling them "number cubes". Maybe we should just call them that all the time and avoid all this plurality mess.

Your country never ceases to amaze me...

[Yng]

Does anyone in real life say 'die' as the singular except prescriptivists who want something to correct other people on?

You've never spent any time with tabletop gamers, have you?

i try and avoid it if at all possible

[Melteor]

"The cats that she keeps' fur is beautiful."

[Thry]

I thought it was well established that English 's is already a clitic.

[Yng]

err yep

the... what... 1400s called they want their innovation back

[Ser]

Plus, what would we do without this beautiful example of an inflectional suffix reanalyzed as a clitic? Doesn't English -'s come from the Old English genitive singular?

[Thry]

Use "of" all the way?

[R.Rusanov]

"Of the cats that she keeps, fur is beautiful"

Just rolls off the tongue don't it

[Drydic]

The fur of the cat she keeps is beautiful you moron.

[Whimemsz]

Plus, what would we do without this beautiful example of an inflectional suffix reanalyzed as a clitic? Doesn't English -'s come from the Old English genitive singular?

Yes, it's one of the few famous examples (afaik--maybe it's just one of the most-cited examples, idk) of affix > clitic development (obviously the reverse process is extremely common).

[linguoboy]

Heard someone the other day say "flea" for "flea market", i.e. "It's one of the best fleas around."

[Whimemsz]

Heard someone the other day say "flea" for "flea market", i.e. "It's one of the best fleas around."

I totally approve of this development and am going to start using it whenever possible, because it sounds hilarious.

[KathTheDragon]

Heard someone the other day say "flea" for "flea market", i.e. "It's one of the best fleas around."

I totally approve of this development and am going to start using it whenever possible, because it sounds hilarious.

"This flea covers several hundred square metres!" Note: I don't actually know how much space a flea market would take up.

[Drydic]

Heard someone the other day say "flea" for "flea market", i.e. "It's one of the best fleas around."

I totally approve of this development and am going to start using it whenever possible, because it sounds hilarious.

"This flea covers several hundred square metres!" Note: I don't actually know how much space a flea market would take up.

There are definitely flea markets that cover several hundred square meters. Then there's the great granddaddy of them all, the Souk in Damascus (at least when it's not being shelled or car bombed.)

[KathTheDragon]

I'd hate my cat to have fleas that big.

[Radius Solis]

Sounds like the one that got me yesterday. 32 bites on my side and belly, 10 more on my arm.

[Viktor77]

Anyone else add an /l/ (or really a /`/) to both? Thus giving us /boU`T/.