OT: spagetti/spagetto (Was Re: OT: graffitum)

On Sun, 29 Jul 2007 06:57:54 +0100, R A Brown <ray@...> wrote:

>Mark J. Reed wrote:
>> On 7/28/07, R A Brown <ray@...> wrote:
>>
>>>>I also routinely refer to an individual pasta noodle as a "spaghetto".
>>>
>>>:)
>>>
>>>That is indeed also correct Italian. It is a diminutive of 'spago' =
>>>"rope."
>>
>> But do Italians actually use it that way?  IME they treat "spaghetti" as a
>> collective.
>
>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.
>
>We can call the word as a collective only if it has singular agreement,
>as it does in English: "The spaghetti is ready."
The French use the plural?  Hmm.  IIRC, Spanish uses it as a collective: el
espaghetti