Berkeley CSUA MOTD:Entry 26848
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2002/12/18 [Computer/HW/CPU] UID:26848 Activity:very high
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