Author Topic: add lauds?  (Read 2625 times)

birdy

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add lauds?
« on: October 19, 2007, 11:00:55 AM »
Tried to use this yesterday, but I'm sure it was read as either a plural noun or a verb form.  I was thinking of the canonical hour, usually used with matins.  The dictionary (Random House, 2nd ed.) says it can be used with either a singular or plural verb.  What can I say?  I read medieval romances.

Alan W

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Re: add lauds?
« Reply #1 on: October 20, 2007, 04:13:15 PM »
Birdy, you have raised a touchy issue, as we have had a lot of debate on previous occasions about words that are usually used in a plural form - most notably, pants.

In the past, I've tried to please everybody, and ended, of course, by pleasing nobody.

Chihuahua currently allows both matins and vespers, even though matin and vesper are also allowed, which would seem to lend support to your request. My reasoning regarding these words is that matins is a fairly well-known word, whereas matin (which can be used to mean a morning, or the morning song of birds) is quite rare, so it would seem harsh to eliminate the plural word because of the little-known singular word. The same logic applies to vespers. There is a word vesper, but it's much less common.

The case of lauds seems a little different, because the word laud, meaning to praise, is fairly common. Hence, when the word lauds is used, it's quite likely to mean "praises" rather than the canonical hour, and therefore to be excluded by our rule against verb forms made by adding s.

To admit lauds would probably be opening the floodgates to quite a number of other words, which I would prefer not to do at this stage, but I'd be happy to consider any comments people might make on the question.
Alan Walker
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Dave

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Re: add lauds?
« Reply #2 on: October 20, 2007, 05:18:13 PM »
For what it's worth, I agree with you, Alan.  I know the word in the canonical context, having been an apprentice mediaevalist at one stage, and in this context it is  usually capitalised, which is another reason for leaving it out. It is not listed in my edition of the Shorter Oxford, but the online edition of the unabridged Merriam-Websters includes the following:

1 lauds plural but singular or plural in construction, often capitalized : a religious service that constitutes the second or with matins the first of the canonical hours and that is usually sung at dawn in monastic houses

And, of course, I entirely agree about not wanting to open the floodgates to a vast number of possible -s word forms...

Cheers,

Dave
The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerneā€¦

technomc

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Re: add lauds?
« Reply #3 on: October 21, 2007, 12:12:40 AM »
MMMM!!!!
I cannot decide whether to agree or not....
So i am going to stay on the fence, with my legs delicately crossed to hide my 'pants'.