Quote:
Originally Posted by cassidym
Correct. It was reportedly invented by a group of young upper middle class men in Boston in the early 1800's.
Meanwhile, there was a big linguistic battle in Britain after the French invaded in 1066 over how to form the plural. English is basically a Germanic language and they form the plural by adding 'en' to a word (ex., one haus, two hausen etc). The French add 's' and after 1066 the 's' caught on in the countryside while the 'en' held sway in the cities. Yet, the countryside won this one so effectively that there is only one word in the English language that is pluralized by adding 'en'.
It's a very common word, do you know what it is?
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Others have previously identified women, children, and oxen (and boxen) as possible answers to this. I'll add another:
One VAX, two VAXen (old computers from the Digital Equipment Corp.)
Xenophon
Also, claiming that "English is basically a Germanic language" is too strong these days, and has been since things settled down after the Conquest. Germanic roots via the Angles and Saxons (with a wee bit of holdover from the prior inhabitant's language -- I'm blanking on their name... ?Picts?), a layer of Romance languages (mostly Norman French) from the Normen (who were themselves Nordic invaders who'd conquered Normandy only a couple of generations earlier). Mangle the original syntax as the Norman men-at-arms 'negotiated' with Saxon serving maids for dates. Add in a bunch of Greek and Latin from scholarly usage (both pre- and post-conquest), a sprinkling of words from just about everywhere in the world, stir well and marinate for at least one-half millenium.