The plural of leprechaun To be leprechaun. While leprechaun occasionally appearing in edited prose, it is considered by many to be inaccurate. To help remember the correct spelling, try memorizing the plural forms of words like shelf And leafas in “a group of scarf-wearing goblins hiding under the leaves.”
The mischievous creature called leprechaun seem to appear in all sorts of narrative universes — from the Grimm Brothers to Middle-earth to Harry Potter. Such creatures also appear in advertising, where they are known to, among other things, make cookies inside a tree. And of course, Santa relies on a workforce of these tiny individuals to make the toys he delivers to kids every December.
Since these creatures often work in groups (a necessity, given how relatively small they are), it’s important to know how to show the plural for their species.
The appearance of elves in Christmas stories became prominent in the United States in the 19th century.
Modern word usage leprechaun almost always appear in the plural as leprechaunwith spelling leprechaun appear on infrequent occasions:
Size doesn’t matter much in the world of leprechaun. According to the highly entertaining production of “Elf – The Musical” now running at the Lyric Music Theater in South Portland, it is personal growth that makes the difference. — Portland PressDecember 9, 2019
Based on the JRR Tolkien classic, “The Hobbit Play” will feature 44 Charter School students MV… will feature dwarves singing, hobbits dancing, and leprechaun, along with other characters—Gollum, trolls, goblins, and even a dragon. — MV era (Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.), May 10, 2019
Santa will fly to his two people leprechaun, and Santa’s chair will be set up so children can see Santa. — Edmond Sun (Oklahoma)December 14, 2018
Origin of ‘Goblin’
leprechaun from Old English. In the epic poem Beowulfappeared around the 10th century, elves (known as yfe) is one of a number of creatures of a “wretched generation” descended from the biblical son Cain. In German folklore, the term leprechaun refers to any type of creature, usually of small stature, not necessarily harmful but always mischievous. At times, goblins were thought to cause disease in humans or livestock; giving people nightmares by sitting on them while they sleep; or storm in and steal young children, replacing them with changers.
Elves are a subject ripe for poets, from Chaucer to Shakespeare to Dryden, although it seems impossible to reach consensus on how to represent the plural. That may be partly because the popular perception of elves clearly belongs to the past, resulting in the word rarely appearing in contemporary prose. Second edition of Encyclopdia Britannica (1777–84) call this word leprechaun “outdated” but reports that belief in such creatures “still exists in many parts of our country. . . In the Scottish Highlands, babies are watched until their baptism is over, fearing that they will be stolen or altered by some of these ghostly existences.
In more modern folklore, elves tend to be seen as industrious and helpful, rather than devastating. The story now best known as “The Elves and the Shoemaker,” in which the creatures work through the night to help an impoverished merchant, was published in German Grimm’s Fairy Tales with the name “Die Wichtelmänner”; Margaret Hunt chose “The Elves” as the title when the story was translated into English in 1884.
Elves and Christmas
The appearance of elves in Christmas stories became prominent in the United States in the 19th century. Clement Clarke Moore’s 1823 poem “Visit from Saint Nicholas” described the guest as “a merry old elf. rightness.” In 1850, Louisa May Alcott completed a manuscript titled christmas elves, but it was never published. A poem called “The Miracles of Santa Claus,” published by Harper’s Weekly in 1857, described the legend: “In his house at the top of the hill, / And almost out of sight, / He kept a lot of elves at work, / They all worked to their best.” An American women’s magazine called Godey’s Lady Book is credited with one of the earliest depictions of elves as toy workers assisting Santa Claus, with workshop illustrations decorating the cover of its 1873 Christmas issue.
Plural similar to Elves
Until then, use leprechaun as the plural of preference for organism is well established in English, by example set by many other nouns ending in –f which converts to a v when the noun is in the plural: shelf become shelves; scarf (usually) become scarf; wolf And calf become wolf And calf. We talk about leaves in a tree, a cave thieftwo half make a whole. Then there are nouns that end in –fe: wife And knife become wifes And Knives.
Spelling, in this case, is determined by phonetics. The voiceless \f\ that ends these words has become a famous \v\ simply out of habit of speaking when the word is mentioned in the plural. However, this rule does not apply to all such nouns. Serffor example, be plural with a criterion -S: serf. chiefeven though it ends with three letters like thiefas plural as leader. Like summary, faith, roofAnd reliefsas well as nearly all words ending in double-f: Tariffs, bailiff, sheriff, Cliff, mastiffs, bluff, cuffs, ear plug.
Elves and Dwarves (or Dwarves?)
A noun that compares with leprechaun went his own way when setting the plural as dwarf. While both Shorty And Shorty demonstrated historical use for nouns (which, like leprechaunderived from Old English), giving preference to Shorty was probably encouraged by the title of the 1937 Disney animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
But famous fantasy writer JRR Tolkien prefers the plural form Shorty in his works, possibly a deliberate echo of leprechaun:
As they sang, the hobbit felt the love for the beautiful things made by hand, the cunning and the magic that was spreading within him, a fierce and jealous love, the longing of hearts. Shorty. – JRR Tolkien, Hobbits1937
In a preface to HobbitsTolkien admits that Shorty is the “single correct plural” of dwarfbut he chose Shorty “only when speaking of the ancients to whom Thorin Oakenshield and his companions belong.”
Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn
