a question in my notes from this afternoon

[fox]

why is the plural of lexicon not lexica?

[eta:  dudes!

Main Entry: lex·i·con
Pronunciation: 'lek-s&-"kän also -k&n
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural lex·i·ca /-k&/; or lexicons
Etymology: Late Greek lexikon, from neuter of lexikos of words, from Greek lexis word, speech, from legein to say -- more at LEGEND
1 : a book containing an alphabetical arrangement of the words in a language and their definitions : DICTIONARY
2 a : the vocabulary of a language, an individual speaker or group of speakers, or a subject b : the total stock of morphemes in a language
3 : REPERTOIRE, INVENTORY

i hereby recommend that we all start using lexica ... whenever we ... happen to ... need to talk about ... more than one ... lexicon ... okay.  well, look for it in my thesis, then! heh.]

Comments

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

now that i think about it, i suppose it's possible it's not lexic+on, but lex+icon. or, even if that's not it -- more to the point, the ending is -on rather than -ion, which is the source (criterion~criteria) of my not-really-expectation of *lexica.

damn. would have been cool. :-)

[madbonnycaptain.livejournal.com]

Also there's phenomenon to phenomena - I think it's the -con that does it.

I'm in between classes right now, so I can't remember the rule, and unfortunately I've no idea where my Latin workbook from school is... but I've got the other Latin book, the one my sister gave me for Christmas or whatever it was, that I never use. But at least I know where it is.

Drop me a line so I remember, I'll see if I can find it tonight?

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

don't forget to look it up. :-) but while phenomenon came through latin (and thanks for that! -- i couldn't think of another example), i believe criterion and lexicon came straight from greek.

when looking this up, however, with my trusty m-w.com (http://www.m-w.com), i found that lexica is the first-listed plural of lexicon! i swear i'd never seen it in print or heard it spoken before. but, am editing the post to reflect this. :-)

[madbonnycaptain.livejournal.com]

well yay!

I know not Greek, despite RPing a Greek goddess (but what the hell, I just say what she tells me to say, so that's easy enough), so... unless you want I should ask my dad, who DOES, and may or may not be awake when I get home from class...


... *shrugs?*