Re: iPod vs. Walkman (Keith, Alex, Dean . . . and everyone)

From: tschibasch <tschibasch_at_yahoo.com_at_hypermail.org>
Date: Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:35:21 -0000

Speaking of pluralities...

I often see apostrophes when pluralizing acronyms. Has this possibly become the accepted way of doing it?

Take the case of DVD. How do we make this plural?

We might first make it like this: DVDs

But it looks odd with a lowercase letter at the end. So, we fix this and render it as: DVDS

But now it looks like it might be a different acronym. Maybe some new special digital format exists? We do have DVD, DVDR, DVDRW; why not DVDS?

So, instead, we insert a small apostrophe separation: DVD's

There we go! The problem here, of course, is that we are creating a single form for both possessive and plural... There again, the context usually is clear whether we are speaking of possession or plurality.

Is this valid? Or have I committed "apostrophe apostasy"?

John



--- In OliveStarlightOrchestra_at_yahoogroups.com, "Rin Watt" <katecwatt@...> wrote:
>
> John would certainly be the expert on how to indicate that one was referring, not to one goofball, but to a plurality, a surfeit, a nimiety, a superabundance, a plethora, nay, a cornucopia, of goofbell.
>
> Rin
>
> "tschibasch" <tschibasch_at_> wrote:
> >
> > I was not saying that the apostrophized plural was wrong, Jack. I see it used quite often.
> >
> > With "walkman", I personally prefer "walkmen" as plural. But with "goofball", should we go with "goofbell"?
> >
> > :-)
> >
> > John
>
Received on 2009-06-30 14:35:47