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mmonly speak of _wheat, barley, or oats_, collectively; and very seldom find occasion for any other forms of these words. But chafferers at the corn-market, in spite of Cobbett,[154] will talk about wheats and barleys, meaning different kinds[155] or qualities; and a gardener, if he pleases, will tell of an oat, (as does Milton, in his Lycidas,) meaning a single seed or plant. But, because wheat or barley generally means that sort of grain in mass, if he will mention a single kernel, he must call it a grain of wheat or a barleycorn. And these he may readily make plural, to specify any particular number; as, five grains of wheat, or three barleycorns.
OBS. 31.--My chief concern is with general principles, but the illustration of these requires many particular examples--even far more than I have room to quote. The word amends is represented by Murray and others, as being singular as well as plural; but Webster's late dictionaries exhibit amend as singular, and amends as plural, with definitions that needlessly differ, though not much. I judge "_an amends_" to be bad English; and prefer the regular singular, an amend. The word is of French origin, and is sometimes written in English with a needless final _e_; as, "But only to make a kind of honourable amende to God."--_Rollin's Ancient Hist._, Vol. ii, p. 24. The word remains Dr. Webster puts down as plural only, and yet uses it himself in the singular: "The creation of a Dictator, even for a few months, would have buried every remain of freedom."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 70. There are also other authorities for this usage, and also for some other nouns that are commonly thought to have no singular; as, "But Duelling is unlawful and murderous, a remain of the ancient Gothic barbarity."--_Brown's Divinity_, p. 26. "I grieve with the old, for so many additional inconveniences, more than their small remain < previous next >