it's certainly an interesting phenomenon morphologically that 'media' has
taken on the form of a singular (definite, mass) noun, because its semantics
does indeed imply *many outlets of information -- which of course 'the
media' is, but the single-entity-ness is a fun lumping from a linguistic
standpoint anyway.
botched Latin/Greek plurals are a pet peeve. in some course overview
situation in high school I couldn't believe that nobody else spotted the
error in the phrase "this is only one criteria for the grade", or similar.
I'd say 'insignia' *is plural; kind of in the same league as the english
word 'markings', semantically speaking. I suppose its singular would be...
insignum?
KS
2008/12/12 Max Richards <[log in to unmask]>
> alumni plural, alumnus singular
>
> media plural, medium singular
>
> The little Latin I learned circa 1955 keeps me sensitized to these
> distinctions
> but I spose they are just lost to living english...
>
> criterion, criteria (Greek? I never did study)
> insignia - is it singular or plural?
>
> etc
>
> Max
>
>
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