Correct Usage

July 29, 2006 11:51 AM

So there has been an invasion of portuguese man of war jellyfish locally.....

they're all gone now but the raging debate on local news has been describing them as portuguese man of war's or portuguese men of war. I am predisposed to #1 but I'm also doing the asking.....anybody?

posted by sgobbare to Education (16 answers total)

The correct spelling is "Portuguese Man o' War", with apostrophe intact. However, it isn't actually a jellyfish, it's a Siphonophora.

It is named after the shape of the sail of a Man of war.
posted by Mwongozi at 11:55 AM on July 29, 2006

#2 seems more correct to me. When you see many "bird of paradise" flowers, do you say "bird of paradises" or "birds of paradise" ?
posted by pmbuko at 11:56 AM on July 29, 2006

I've lived near the beach my entire life, and was a beach lifeguard for 9 years, and I've only ever heard the plural usage "Portuguese Man of War"; just like "moose", the singular and plural are the same, as far as I know.
posted by saladin at 11:56 AM on July 29, 2006

Response by poster: Thank you, Mwongozi. So the plot thickens... Would that be Portuguese man o' war's or Portuguese men o' war?
Again, anybody....?
posted by sgobbare at 12:06 PM on July 29, 2006

Best answer: Well, it can't possibly be "men o' war", because that implies that its name is "man", and "o' war" is a description.

But it's not, "man o' war" as a whole is the name, so I'd say that the plural form is identical to the singular.

"Today I saw 20 Portuguese Man o' War."

"Sheep" is the same, for example. One sheep, many sheep.
posted by Mwongozi at 12:10 PM on July 29, 2006

Related: I've been told the plural of a Canada Goose is Canada Geese -- NOT "Canandian geese."
posted by davidmsc at 12:10 PM on July 29, 2006

minus an "n" - duh.
posted by davidmsc at 12:10 PM on July 29, 2006

I'll second saladin's version- it's what I've heard most often. Though occasionally I've heard Man O' Wars, come to think of it.
posted by small_ruminant at 12:14 PM on July 29, 2006

The plural for "man-of-war" is "men-of-war".

That listing is linked as a synonym for Portuguese Man o' War, so I assume the plural is Purtuguese Men o' War.
posted by agropyron at 1:11 PM on July 29, 2006

I respectfully disagree with the American Heritage Dictionary. :)
posted by Mwongozi at 2:13 PM on July 29, 2006

OED says 'men-of-war'.
posted by chrismear at 3:27 PM on July 29, 2006

Of course, Portuguese men-of-war.

And yes, davidmsc, their qualifier is always Canada, never Canadian.

And just as the pural is policemen and firemen, don't ever let me catch you calling a bunch of personal stereos anything but Walkmen.
posted by Rash at 6:49 PM on July 29, 2006

Going out on a limb here ... I think Chicago would say to rephrase the sentence, if at all possible.
posted by Alt F4 at 12:30 PM on July 30, 2006

Similarly: one passer-by, many passers-by.
posted by alexei at 4:03 PM on July 30, 2006

One Whopper Junior; many Whoppers Junior.
posted by chrismear at 4:51 AM on August 1, 2006

Now that we've resolved that one ...

Winnies the Pooh? Winnie the Poohs? Winnie the Pooh (plural)?

Ombudsmen? Ombudsesmen?




I know nobody's here. It's okay.
posted by Alt F4 at 7:12 PM on August 5, 2006