SPOILER - Accepted plurals (and other words ending in ess)

[TRex]

After much trial and error, I determined that one of the common words in the Challenge puzzle was a word ending in ess which, because I thought of it as a plural word and therefore impermissible, I had not tried. (I have frequently had this problem.) This prompted me to search the archives for permitted plurals. I came across this statement from Alan in the thread titled Re: craps should be legit, I believe:

I'd be a happy man if just one person would agree with me that it's a complicated question, with no simple, formulaic solutions.

I can certainly agree that it is a complicated question lacking a simple formulaic solution. Absolutely!

Because the basic rule (with which I agree) excludes:
     plurals and verb forms made by adding S to the end of a word
I think the acceptance of words which only add an ess to another word — especially those classified as common — can be confusing and make it difficult to attain the rosette. On the Questions and Answers page, under Why can't I use plurals?, there are only five words ending in ess listed as permitted.

Despite much searching, I was unable to find a comprehensive list of accepted plurals. (I did find a list of 340 words proposed by Alan as possible words to be made acceptable, but it appears no action was taken on the list.) I collected words from various lists I found. This list is probably incomplete. Words in bold are those I think are classified as common (if I wasn't sure, I didn't bold). I invite beg corrections/additions/deletions.

PERMITTED WORDS ENDING IN 'S':
annals, arrears, bitters, bloomers, blues, bowls, briefs, buns, cahoots, clothes, crackers, craps, does, duds, earnings, effects, elements, goods, grits, guts, hearts, hers, ides, jeans, knickers, mores, nones, news, odds, pants, pliers, scrubs, shears, shorts, strings, stripes, suds, tails, talks, taps, tights, togs

[technomc]

...and there they are again......
I love that my pants keep appearing!!!

[birdy]

Looking at that list, I'm wondering why "hearts" and "talks" were allowed.  Guess I'll have to go back and look when I have more time!

[TRex]

Looking at that list, I'm wondering why "hearts" and "talks" were allowed.  Guess I'll have to go back and look when I have more time!

https://theforum.lexigame.com/index.php/topic,832.msg25955.html#msg25955

But, in re-reading, the words in the list there may only be for discussion and not actually added .... which is just another reason why I think there needs to be a definitive list of these words.

[rhino]

And how about adding words like rapids and dues?

Cheers,

Rhino

[TRex]

I missed one: CORPS (common).

[rhino]

And cripes is also allowed as a common ...

Rhino 

[tiggerbelle]

Dont forget TONGS, now allowed

[Alan W]

Chihuahua currently accepts 127 words that can be formed by adding S to the end of another acceptable word. This list excludes words ending in SS, like assess.

In only 16 of these cases are both "singular" and "plural" words classed as common:

blues, briefs, clothes, craps, goods, maths, mores, outskirts, pants, passes, shingles, shorts, theirs, theses, tongs, yours

In most cases, the shorter word is rare and the one with the S at the end is common:

always, asses, baldies, basses, billies, caddies, candies, champers, chaos, conches, cosies, couches, cripes, crises, crosses, crudites, curries, doldrums, empresses, environs, fantasies, fesses, finis, fogies, galoshes, genus, glutes, grannies, heroes, honkies, hooves, huskies, hustings, jeans, knickers, knives, kudos, lefties, lenses, loaves, masses, matins, matrices, measles, menses, methinks, midwives, mommies, monies, musses, nannies, nappies, nixes, obsequies, overseas, pampas, panties, patties, penis, pinnies, pliers, plies, prognoses, relies, sasses, sheaves, sideburns, sideways, species, spies, sties, tapas, tatters, teddies, testes, tries, upstairs, vespers, wharves, wolves

Quite a few of these words have always been allowed. Often the shorter word is very rare indeed. (What the hell is a kudo? Well apparently it's an honour or statement of praise, and was coined as a back-formation from kudos. But I don't think it really caught on.)

In our list of 127, we also have cases where a rare word is the same as a common word + S:

afters, bitters, bloomers, cahoots, grits, nones, proceeds, shears

And where both words are rare:

annals, arrears, beeves, cantharis, capris, caulis, chappies, cozies, custodes, esses, loonies, luxes, mattins, meths, nouses, patas, penes, putties, pyrites, realties, titties, trews, yikes

Finally, we have 19 four-letter words ending in S, whose first three letters are a word - but, of course, not a word accepted by Chi because three letters is too short. 12 of these are common:

alas, anus, does, goes, guts, hers, ides, news, odds, oops, ours, suds

The other 7 four-letter words are rare:

daks, gens, lees, mews, mons, sans, togs

What more can I tell you? Please, no-one ask me to explain why each of these 146 words is accepted!

Hearts and talks are not allowed. They were examples I gave of words that would have a claim to be accepted if we rigidly followed the rule of allowing any word that has a separate meaning from the plural usage. Since hearts can be a game of cards, generally treated as a singular word - "Hearts is a great game" - we might argue that the word should be accepted. My point was that we have to look at how common each usage is.

Corps is certainly allowed, but corp is not.

[Alonzo Quixote]

There are two words which arise occasionally that appear to be a singular and a plural,  where the plural is allowed and the singular is not.

utases  is allowed;  but  utas  is not allowed.

U´tas
n. 1. 
 1. (O. Eng. Law) The eighth day after any term or feast; the octave; as, the utas of St. Michael.
The marriage was celebrated and Canterbury, and in the utas of St. Hilary next ensuing she was crowned.
- Holinshed.
 2. Hence, festivity; merriment.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by C. & G. Merriam Co.


This does not match exactly the situation addressed above.

[TRex]

Thanks, Alan!

[Alan W]

AQ, you may have opened up a whole new can of worms!

Utas is not allowed because it might be the plural of uta, "any of several iguanid lizards of the genus Uta, of the western U.S. and northern mexico".

[Alonzo Quixote]

I had not intended to open up either a can of worms or lizards!!

Thank you for the clarification.

[birdy]

That's a good ant-ser, A-Q.

[TRex]

 
Not included in Alan's list of words: pons