Word: plural
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Dates: during 1890-1899
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...changes in grammar are very marked. Old French nouns had two cases, subject and object, descendants of the Latin nominative and accusative. As to number, very little distinction is made in modern French in speaking. In old French probably the plural was formed by s in the majority of cases. The word boeuf was pronounced bwef, and the plural bwes...
...Moulton began with the definition of the word humour and its derivation. It was derived from the Latin root meaning moistur and during the Middle Ages came to be applied in the plural to the moistures or juices which on old medical authority made up the constitution of a human being, as bile or phlegm. So a bilious or phlegmatic humour came to mean a certain character or state. This was the sense in which Jonson used "humour," in the play "Every Man out of his Humour...