JS Bangs wrote:
> Quoting Stephen Mulraney <ataltanie@...>:
>
>
>>Gary Shannon wrote:
>> > --- Stephen Mulraney <ataltanie@...> wrote:
>> >
>> > I've always wondered why folks in the UK choose to use
>> > the plural form of "math", when they take a "maths
>> > class" but yet don't go to "readings class" or
>> > "histories class" or "chemistries class". What is the
>> > rule for deciding which school subject names are used
>> > in their plural form?
>>
>>"Maths" is short for "Mathematics", in which the Greek 3rd (*)
>>declension nomimative ending _s_ is parsed as an English plural.
> I seriously doubt that the Greek formation has anything to do with English
> making this always-plural, especially since the Greek form would probably be _ta
> maqhmatika_, with no /s/ at all. I would understand _maqhmatikos_ to mean
> "mathematician".
http://colet.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/chuck/woodhouse_pages.pl?page_num=518
gives _logistikos_, but I think you're right. I assumed the -ics ending
of many subjects was the relic of a nouns like (in Latin) _lex_ ~ _legis_.
>
> The pluralization is just customary for fields of study ending in -ic (as
> opposed to those ending in -logy). Mathematics, linguistics, economics, etc.
Hmm.. so mathematics is originally plural in English? But usage (e.g. verb
agreement) disagrees, and I don't think "mathematics are..." has ever been
current. I wonder what the origin of the _-ic_ and _-ics_ are.
--
Stephen Mulraney ataltane@ataltane.net
The best way to remove a virus is with vi and a steady hand.