12/18 If "single" is for 1 and "dual" is for 2, what are the corresponding
words for 3 and 4? Thanks.
\_ In (linguistic) morphology, "trial" is used to describe a noun
form in a couple of exotic languages (most famously, Fijian) that
corresponds to 3 of that number (the single/plural distinction in
English splits into single/dual/trial/plural in those). The OED
has this as the sole usage of the term as an adjective. There is no
corresponding term for 4 in this context since no known
language splits off 4 as a separate number class. -alexf
\_ triple, quadruple
\_ But I thought "triple" and "quadruple" are in the same category
as "double", not "dual". No?
\_ single, double, triple, quadruple
mono, bi, tri, quad
I believe dual is a unique case
\_ dual is a synonym. (dict is your friend)
though the distinction of double (duplare) and dual
(dualis) is interesting to note.
\_ "dict dual" says:
"3: a grammatical number category referring to
two items or units (as opposed to one item
(singular) or more than one item (plural));"
So I guess it should be singular, dual, plural. That
means since we call 1- and 4-processor machines single-
and quad-processor, we should call 2-processor machines
double-processor instead of dual-processor.
\_ how about if applied to sex?
unisexual, bisexual, menage a trois, gang bang?
\_ forgot orgy
\_ It should be abstinence, masturbation, monogamy, menage a trois
orgy.
and orgy for 0, 1, 2, 3 and many.
\_ Where does "treble" fit in?
\_ Music 1A |