Recently I added
economics as an acceptable word, no longer to be excluded as a plural ending in S. I notice that a few of the outstanding suggestions - some of them from many years ago - raise similar issues. This is one of them.
The OED informs us that
heroic has been used as a singular noun, meaning a heroic verse. Hence it could be used in the plural, as in this example from 1895:
I ... hammered away at my blessed Popean heroics till nine, when I went regularly to bed, to rise again at five.
But this is definitely a very rare usage of the word. Whereas
heroics, meaning heroism, or bold, perhaps reckless, behaviour, is a plural noun with no corresponding singular form. And it is quite well-known, appearing often in sports reports. For example in the
Mirror (UK) in August:
The 23-year-old made history with his heroics as he became the first Irish man to win an Olympic gold medal in swimming ...
Heroics will be accepted in future, as a common word.
I'll deal with some other words of this type over coming days.
