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

'Hippopotamuses' is gross, as is 'stadiums'.
Funnily enough, I agree that cement is a jolly interesting subject.
According to the rules of scrabble (and grammar) one can make a plural of any word - thus in the sentence "my stuff and your stuff were added together" we have two stuffs.

Yes - "English" is a form of reverse spin put on a cue ball, and something which is a bit odd can be described as "a bit Irish" - although this latter has fallen out of use recently (especially around these parts).

Its a curious thing 'Welsh on a bet'. In my mind (a small, but nevertheless disorganised space) the word was always welch, though perhaps with a soft 'c'. At some time within living memory (mine anyway) there was a mis-spelling or misunderstanding by some journalist who used the meaning with the 'welsh' spelling and something of an outraged uprising from our Celtic friends. Nevertheless, the misuse has stuck somehow, and we never see the 'welch' spelling any more.

I've always felt that one of the essential qualities of "stuff" is its fuzzy boundaries. I think of it like putting two scribbles on a piece of paper next to one another, and then it just looks like one scibble.

Q. Is a scibble singular only while the pen/pencil etc. doesn't leave the paper? If the pen is lifted up and then put down again (to continue scribbling) is that then a plural of scribbles ?

The Royal Welch Fusiliers (yes it's the correct spelling) has a webpage which says that the welsh version will be along soon...

day - daze
court - quartz
Mount Sinum - Mount Sinai

Interestingly (to me), Arabic has singular, dual and plural (more than two).

If I may just butt in here (Not quite the same in America, methinks) with a personal note to Percy. It seems that we are not alone, as since posting above, one (hushed tones) MM has taken my guide entry on cement away, or at least closed the thread thereof. No doubt, as the esteemed Walter of Colne once suggested, to read to his loved one in bed tonight.

Sorry about that, everyone, please carry on.

man, men
woman, women
Sony Walkman, Sony Walkmen? or Sony Walkmans?

This is an example of those wonderful Japanese invented words where the individual components don't quite fit together. A Walkman is not a man, so the normal rule man->men doesn't seem right. But neither does the alternative.

When we borrow a word from another language we should have the good manners to borrow its plural as well. I am for Goyim.
Country folk do not seem to bother much with plurals -
A herd of cattle
A brace of pheasant, grouse, trout
A covey of partridge
A herd of deer

It should have been Walkperson, and then Walkpeople for the plural.

Does anyone know if plurals can have plurals (can't actually think of an example, don't even know if the concept is valid)

Kaeori - do you know the significance of the arabic distinction between 2 off and more than 2 ?

There's an interesting (!) usage ... 2 of (something) and 2 off ...

Some plurals can have plurals eg 'Words and more words give a sentence containing two 'words''. Unfortunately it seems that the plural of the plurals is the same as the plural of the singulars. How tedious.
The name Walkman is peculiar. What has 'man' to do with a cassette or CD player. I suppose that the 'walk' bit is rational enough. As to 'Walkperson'........ I do hope you are not serious about this Nikki-D
The idea of a crumpet being a diminutive crump is interesting and leads to many similar speculations.
Is a limpet a little limp? What about a puppet, muppet, moppet or whippet? What is raggled and why does it happen to beds? Why do people pet their cars? Where is short supply and why is so much in it? For answers to these and other questions... phone a friend.

Raggle must have a meaning, as in raggle taggle (Gypsy-o). Raddle certainly does, but there are ladies present. Rabble. Rattle. Raffle. Razzle. Can you ravel (as opposed to unravel)?

Well, there's Ravel (note capital) in the sense that Bo Derek might have used it.

Nikki-D, probably the Arabs wonder why we don't have a dual form. Or do we?

Well, would you car your pet? In the raggled bed stakes, I always liked books being described as foxed, if they were a bit worn. It leads to the business idea of a professional book foxer (to make new-money libraries look more impressive) whose tools of the trade would include a box, a large leather glove and an irate fox.
Also, a whippet is a smaller version of the greyhound type (to my mind) and puppets do tend to be small, so you might be on to something here.

Gaah I have missed this over the last month. Best off and read the backlog now.

I've always liked the phrase "the criminal was outfoxed by the police". Clearly society is in danger if criminals get their hands on bigger foxes...

Is it a wildlife game of "Top trumps"? (Does that game exist in the states?)

What about the plural of forum? in H2G2-speak it is now accepted and approved as forums. But in the Latin (I think) forum is a noun, so the above rule will not apply.

The Forum was a noun. It was the marketplace of the town. Each town had only one forum, so the plural wouldn't have been used often, but the plural would have been "fora".

There is a word to ravel. It means to tangle. But to ravel out means the opposite: it means to disentangle, very similar to unravel.

What about to gruntle, and the state of low dudgeon?

Gnomon,
So, "wood" has no possibility of a final "s", eh?
Well you're sure of a big surprise if you go down to the woods today.

Pheroneous,
Re ravelling (and by that I do not mean ravelling again, I mean .... )
William S. of Stratford writes:
"Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care,"
I haven't the foggiest what he meant by it, and, admittedly he attributes it to some Scottish geezer; so does that count in this forum?