Shouldn’t the plural be mongeese?
I was pretty sure Kory Stamper included why goose>geese!=mongoose>mongeese in her video on plural formation…but I haven’t found it in the usual places…probably explained by this
Thanks, MW. What an idiotic move! Kory’s videos were the best! Not that I don’t enjoy Ms. Brewster’s or Mr. Sokolowski’s but they just don’t demonstrate the verve for dictionarying that Ms. Stamper did.
Love Kory Stamper! Was sad when she left Merriam-Webster, she had that subtle smile that said “Did you get the joke or pun I put in there.”
Defenestration video is one of my favorites.
Do you play the timed word games?
I know not of which you speak, so I think it’s safe to say “No”…
How did you find Kory and not the rest! Okay, for folks not into all things nerdy and lexicon, you can stop reading.
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Here is one of the current quizzes, enjoy.
These have stopped for me…with the pandemic. I need to resub, probably…
And no, I don’t particularly enjoy most of their games…
Speed is rarely a goal of mine, and it usually shows
PS I found it. I was wrong; doesn’t cover mongeeses.
Treasure Trove:
http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Wiki/index.php?title=Kory_Stamper
Using the rules in here, I doubt Mongoose is a foreign (anglo-saxon origin word like Moose) but mongooses sound more proper tnon-han mongeese …something that eats cobras doesn’t sound geesy to me.
Well just looked it up …
Thank goodness that was conclusive! Put the kibash on that little debate once and for all!
One of my favorite sites… can spend hours on there, like a yootoob rabbit hole, but try to refrain most days…
A. That was a straight copy-paste from a google lookup. So that’s not my direct fault.
B. I certainly enjoyed all the etymology.
OK, so it has been established that Mongeese (Or Mongooses) means several Mongoose… MY question is… what about MonGANDERS? I saw Mongeese (Or Monganders… or a Mix… I didn’t check them) when I visited Tanzania in the early 2000’s. Only thing I am sure of is that they ran across open spaces and back to cover again, in a “V” formation… nature is weird… leave it alone!
I think they may be related to Michiganders? They have well a defined habitat range in North Central US. See also: Rust Belt for habitat’s primary characteristics.
I suppose the Austrailiaus Taz Gandus you speak of probably run counter-clockwise formation due to the Coriolis effect of the southern hemisphere. I wouldn’t be surprised if they screech “Crikey” when they run in a Vee-formation… This is all highly speculative and imaginative on my part. But it could be.
WOW! Why isn’t this information on Wikipedia? I’m starting to doubt the internet…NAW!..