![]() ![]() Thus, tyrannosaurus rexes, not "tyrannosauri reges". Similarly, I advise the use of English plurals for the others. Using the latinate plural ending is not wrong, as such, but unusual. The Greek plural is sauroi a Latin adaption of it would normally end in -i like a second declension noun, but this seems to have been mostly avoided, palaeontologists use 'stegosauruses' and the like if they want to talk about them in the plural, and not 'stegasauri' (or even 'stegasauroi', as far as I can see). "Triceratops" plural is the same as the singular, with "Triceratopses" as an alternative.There is no Latin word "Saurus", it is a Latinate adaptation of Greek σαῦρος 'lizard'. But should "Tyrannosaurus Rex" become "Tyrannosauri Reges"? "Tyrannosaurus Rex" and "Tyrannosaurus Rexes" are listed as valid alternatives. ![]() "Saurus" is Latin so "Stegosauri" is the correct plural of "Stegosaurus". Tarantella is not actually a Latin word, but Italian since it exists also in English I see nothing wrong with 'Giant Tarantellas' (for pedants, the correct Italian plural is tarantelle). Rhagodessae is fine as a neo-Latin plural, if you wish. Basically the whole family of creatures were named first as rhagodids (rhagodidae in Latin, named in the 19th c.) and rhagodessa is a diminutive meaning 'little rhagodid'. The etymology is given nowhere that I can find (apparently invented by the naturalist Rower in 1933), but it looks to me to be derived from a stem of the Greek verb ῥήγνυμι 'tear apart'. Rhagodessa is actually a modern Latinate word coined for a species of the real-world sun spiders (solifuges, which are somewhere inbetween spiders and scorpions). Slithy wrote:Following Moldvay/Cook's 'Rhagodessae' (p.X38), Latin-sounding names ending in '-a' become '-ae':Ĭaeciliae, Chimerae, Hydrae, Rhagodessae, Giant TarantellaeFirst three are fine, second and third if you're treating them as Latin (if Greek, the plurals are "Chimairai" and "Hydrai" fwiw, not really relevant here). Fish (Bass, Catfish, Rockfish, Sturgeon) have the same plural as singular, as does Devil Swine ("Devil Swines" is acceptable, but Moldvay/Cook use the former, p.X30).Įverything else follows the standard rules. Moldvay/Cook follow Tolkien for Dwarves/Elves. So I have gone with "Djinn" and "Efreet" for the singular and "Djinni/Efreeti" as plurals. Moldvay/Cook use "Djinni" and "Efreeti" as the singular (p.X30-X31) but these are the plural form. "Triceratops" plural is the same as the singular, with "Triceratopses" as an alternative. So I will follow Moldvay for "pegasi" but for the others I am leaning towards "rhinoceroses" and "octopodes".įinally, the dinosaurs. But a linguist on Quora says it is plural only in origin and although the original is Greek, we adopted it in English in the Latin form, ending in -us, not the Greek -os. Pegasus is likewise pluralised to 'Pegasi' (p.X37), and my dictionary is silent on the correct plural as it is listed as a proper noun. The plural form octopi, formed according to rules for some Latin plurals, is incorrect." However, the word octopus comes from Greek and the Greek plural form octopodes is still occasionally used. The Oxford English is emphatic on this point: "The standard plural in English of octopus is octopuses. According to my dictionary, the plural should either be same as the singular, or 'Rhinoceroses'. Rhinoceros is Greek and '-i' is the Latin plural form. On the other hand, Moldvay/Cook have 'Rhinoceri' (p.X38) which seems incorrect. Here's what I have gone for:įollowing Moldvay/Cook's 'Rhagodessae' (p.X38), Latin-sounding names ending in '-a' become '-ae':Ĭaeciliae, Chimerae, Hydrae, Rhagodessae, Giant Tarantellaeįollowing Moldvay/Cook p.X29, 'Cyclops' becomes 'Cyclopes' (from Greek) ![]() The tricky ones are the monsters which are based on Greek or Latin names. So Man becomes Men, Wolf becomes Wolves and so on. I have a few rules which cover the general cases (-y becomes -ies, -s becomes -ses and all other cases default to adding -s) but it's possible to override this for irregular plurals. One nerdy detail I am grappling with is what plural forms to use for some monsters. The class will include macros to create stat blocks for all the monsters in the B/X rulebooks in a standard format. In another thread I mentioned I am creating a LaTeX class to automatically typeset D&D modules in a style inspired by the rulebooks and modules of the Moldvay B/X era. ![]()
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