h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Why is it that the plural of most types of fish is the same as the singular (even the plural of 'fish' is 'fish')? The only exceptions I can think of off the top of my head are anchovies and sardines and pilchards, which leads me to suspect that the plural is the same as the singular unless you usually eat them on toast.

That's probably the reason. Well, not the toast particularly, but the fact that they are no longer living items, but foodstuffs which we count individually. The difference between singular and plural is a light snack versus a meal, and that distiction is important to convey.

I'd say sharks, blennies, sticklebacks, minnows, pollocks, dorados, rays, mantas, herrings, groupers, coelycanths.

But I don't think I'd say cods, salmons.

Strange.

Tuna, tunae?

Octopi?

~jwf~

Pheasant is U, pheasants is non-U.

Rabbit doesn't take the hunting plural because a gentleman would never hunt rabbits. Only hare.

I mean - it's all bollocks, really. The rule only exists to make people feel inferior.

Octopuses is preferred, or octopodes if you want to be technical about it. Not octopi.

TRiG.

IIRC 3 out of 4 previous h2g2 threads
on this question over the years have
been left undecided with a quarter
coming down fully on the side of
octopussies.

~jwf~