I have extrapolated all of this from the one sentence quoted above without checking any further sources, so the actual historical details may have been slightly different. Why is 'sheep' the same when talking about one or more than one? A word meaning. What is the ideal way of emulating a full dice set using a single d20? Do you disagree with something on this page. The nonstandard plural form aircrafts is in use among non-native speakers of English. "Aircraft" is a collective word, like "sheep" and "deer", and so it is both singular and plural. Experts are used to being proved wrong later in situations where they were just speculating, so they don't claim an etymology as fact unless the entire chain of changes is documented with each link not just plausible but fitting a well established pattern (i.e. Does it come from craft used as a mass noun? 9. @YohannV. Any tools (that actually work) for viewing PDF files in FreeDOS? a. collect. To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers. Why does “information” not have a plural form? These uses were probably colloquial with watermen, fishers, and seamen some time before they appeared in print, so that the history is not evidenced; but the expression is probably elliptical, sense 9 being = vessels of small craft, i.e. Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible). A small vessel or boat; any sailing or floating vessel. rev 2020.9.30.37704, The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, English Language & Usage Stack Exchange works best with JavaScript enabled, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site, Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, Learn more about hiring developers or posting ads with us, @PeterShor I have seen it, and it is why I asked about "its non plural form", I was refering to this meaning and asking why it has been used more that the meaning of object created. Today, we have used a large number of assets, comprising of 34 aircraft, 40 ships, hundreds of men, thousands of man-hours has been deployed. @rogermue The obvious explanation for this approach by the experts would be that they have a good overview of possible candidates unrelated to. use chiefly in Whale-fishery: see quot. Don't overestimate what you find in etymological dictionaries. How could immunity to a lie detection ability work? Delivered to your inbox! (with a and pl.) As an ellipsis for "vessel[s] of small craft", a (singular and) plural word "small craft" makes perfect sense. Can I contact the referee if I know their identity after a double-blind reviewing process? The Plural of Aircraft The plural of aircraft is aircraft. Learn a new word every day. The importance of the cold chain in the food and the pharmaceutical industry. c. An aircraft or spacecraft. Thanks for contributing an answer to English Language & Usage Stack Exchange! What are the breaking changes caused by rewritten comparison operators? It seems possible to me that the power meaning of craft survived for longer in nautical terminology, both because such terminology is often a bit detached from evolutions in the remainder of the language, and because the seafaring part of the population presumably had more contact with German-speakers. Craft, is a Sea word signifying all manner of Lines, Nets, Hooks, &c. which serve for Fishing; and because those that use the Fishing Trade use Small Vessels..they call all such little Vessels Small Craft. Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience. 1943 W. S. Churchill Telegram 15 June in Second World War (1952) V. 566. I my view a nice theory, complicated and not very convincing. Once the ellipsis has become a fixed expression whose origin people don't remember, small will easily be re-interpreted as referring to physical size (which, after all, is strongly associated with a boat's power), so that the rarely used "[vessels of] great craft" will look irregular and "large craft" will be said instead. Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words? See the full definition for aircraft in the English Language Learners Dictionary, Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for aircraft, Nglish: Translation of aircraft for Spanish Speakers, Britannica English: Translation of aircraft for Arabic Speakers, Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about aircraft. The plural is 'Aircraft', like the plural of 'sheep' is 'sheep' and 'fish' is 'fish' Aircraft "The word 'Aircraft' has the same plural form as singular - one aircraft, many aircraft. Straight talking and methodical, "Smashing Grammar" (Our Grammar Book, 2019), some nouns undergo a vowel or letters change. Why is the plural form of “house” not “hice”? Swapping out our Syntax Highlighter. What seems to have happened is that people accepted the SINGULAR COUNTABLE sense and coined the word aircraft. The want in English of any general collective term for all sorts of ‘vessels for water carriage’ naturally made craft a useful stop-gap. It's unbelievable what one squadron of twelve aircraft did to tip the balance. It still had this meaning in Middle English. Language change takes centuries, so the last step is where we are now. English is like that for hysterical reasons. But it's also possible that "small craft" originally referred to boats of little workmanship and that the sense shifted later. any machine supported for flight in the air by buoyancy or by the dynamic action of air on its surfaces, especially powered airplanes, gliders, and helicopters. But they also used aircraft ro mean 'a particular collection of flying machines' — in other words a PLURAL SPECIFIC concept. Why can macOS have two files with same name? Are We Entering 'Uncharted' or 'Unchartered' Waters. Classic story about a rainmaking pilot over LA. Craft itself is used as aircraft as well. Not so for aircraft, which is a relatively new word with no such legacy. Words such as "aeroplane" and "jetliner" are singular and … Nothing can stop the attack of aircraft except other aircraft.

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