Nouns

“Myriad saw it.” vs. “Myriad people saw it.” vs. “Myriad of people saw it.” vs. “A myriad of people saw it.”

Adjectives, Common English Blunders, Nouns, Prepositions

According to Merriam-Webster.com and Dictionary.com, the word “myriad” can act as a noun or as an adjective.

“Myriad saw it.”

The first use of the source-word for “myriad” was in 1555 Greek.

The original Greek noun for “myriad” — “myrioi” — meant “ten thousand”.

Based on this, “Myriad saw it.” means “Ten thousand saw it.”

The noun “myriad” got generalized to “a great number”.[1]

Based on this, “Myriad saw it.” means “A great number saw it.”

“Myriad people saw it.”

The first known use of “myriad” as an adjective was in 1735, according to Merriam-Webster.com.

The primary definition of “myriad” as an adjective is “innumerable”.

Based on this, “Myriad people saw it.” means “Innumerable people saw it.”

“Myriad of people saw it.”

As noted, the definition of “myriad” as a noun got generalized to “a great number”.

Dictionary.com says that this is the primary definition for the noun; Merriam-Webster.com says that this is the secondary definition for the noun.

No matter which way you rank this definition of “myriad” as a noun, this definition tells us that “Myriad of people saw it.” means “A great number of people saw it.”

“A myriad of people saw it.”

This “a myriad of people or things” usage is problematic.

The word “myriad” in this usage is acting as a noun, but look at the two definitions for “myriad” as a noun:

  • ten thousand
  • a great number

Plugging in each definition, we get:

  • “A ten thousand of people saw it.”
  • “A a great number of people saw it.”

Each expression looks wrong.

Conclusion:
These three usages of “myriad” are clearly correct:

  • “Myriad saw it.”
  • “Myriad people saw it.”
  • “Myriad of people saw it.”

This usage of “myriad” may be incorrect:

  • “A myriad of people saw it.”

[1] This is equivalent to what happened to the verb “decimate”. It originally meant “to kill every tenth man”; its meaning got generalized into “to destroy in great number” instead.

“ink jet” vs. “ink-jet” vs. “inkjet”

Adjectives, Hyphens, Nouns, Versus

Reader Jennifer W. recently contacted me with this question:

Could you look into the proper spelling of the term inkjet? I see it spelled 3 ways: ink jet, ink-jet and inkjet. There are differences between various dictionaries as well. How do I know which is correct?

Here was my response:

Jennifer,

Thanks for contacting me. It’s an excellent question!

If you are referring to an individual jet built into a printer, then “ink jet” would be correct. For example: “An ink jet in the printer became clogged with ink residue.”

But you should never use “ink jet” to modify a noun (such as “printer”). When you use two nouns together to modify a third noun, you must hyphenate the first two nouns. Otherwise, for example, you leave the reader wondering whether “ink jet printer” refers to a printer that uses one or more ink jets OR to a “jet printer” (whatever that is!) that uses ink (versus, say, toner(s) or color stick(s)).

This leads to the question about when to use ink-jet and when to use inkjet.

You may not like the answer, but in my opinion the answer is that you may use either one.

It depends on whether you prefer hyphenated or non-hyphenated compound nouns.

The German language is full of non-hyphenated compound nouns.

In contrast, British English is full of hyphenated compound nouns.

My impression is that many Americans prefer the German approach, and this approach is fine when combining ink and jet.

Omitting the hyphen does not always work, though. For example, “pen-island” can easily be misinterpreted when you omit the hyphen!

But, again, the non-hyphenated “inkjet” form is just as clear as the hyphenated “ink-jet” form.

And it seems to me that many people now prefer “inkjet” over “ink-jet” when you are omitting the word “printer” from your sentence — as in, “My inkjet died last week.” (or “Do you have any inkjets for less than $100?”).

…

Best,
Kirk

One suggestion: Buy my How to Use Hyphens book. It will help you further with questions like this.

“cattle” vs. “cows”

Nouns, Plurals, Versus

I wrote yesterday about the nouns “swine” and “pig”.

Thinking about other animals, this has made me ask even more questions: 1. What exactly does “cattle” mean? 2. How is “cattle” related to “cow”? 3. Is it preferable to refer to bovines as “cattle” or “cows”?

Dictionary.com says that the plural noun “cattle” primarily means bovine animals, esp. domesticated members of the genus Bos.

And Dictionary.com says that the first three meanings of the noun “cow” are (a) the mature female of a bovine animal, esp. of the genus Bos, (b) the female of various other large animals, as the elephant or whale, and (c) Informal. a domestic bovine of either sex and any age.

So it is preferable to use “cattle” to refer to bovines in general and to use “cows” to refer specifically to mature female bovines or to refer to the females (usually mature) of other large animals (usually mammals).