(Untitled)

[gwynraven]

Intersting article on the possibility of assisted colonisation as a conservation method

If nothing else, the fourth paragraph on the second page answers my long-held question about the plural of "mongoose".

Comments

[carocrow]

Oh, God, you made me look.

[desperance]

If nothing else, the fourth paragraph on the second page answers my long-held question about the plural of "mongoose".

It does, but it answers it wrong. The correct plural - alas! - is mongooses.

[gwynraven]

Really? I would have thought the Discovery Channel website would have gotten it right.

[terracinque]

I went over to OneLook and searched on "mongoose" to see what the accepted plural would be. These cites all give the plural only as "mongooses:"

Encarta
Ask Oxford
Cambridge
Bartleby
Infoplease
Dictionary.com
FreeDictionary
Poetry Dictionary
Enchanted Learning

These gave the plural as "mongooses" or "mongeese:"

Merriam-Webster
UltraLingua
Wiktionary
Wikipedia

And the last two note that "mongeese" is nonstandard.

And according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, "mongoose" is from an Indian language while "goose" is from Old English.

"Mongeese" is clearly a folk pluralization applied because of its similarity to "geese." If you'd never heard of "geese" it wouldn't occur to anyone to give "mongoose" a nonstandard plural.