The Grammar of English Grammars. Goold Brown
authorities we can quote for it.
OBS. 30.—In general, where both numbers exist in common use, there is some palpable oneness or individuality, to which the article a or an is applicable; the nature of the species is found entire in every individual of it; and a multiplication of the individuals gives rise to plurality in the name. But the nature of a mass, or of an indefinite multitude taken collectively, is not found in individuals as such; nor is the name, whether singular, as gold, or plural, as ashes, so understood. Hence, though every noun must be of one number or the other, there are many which have little or no need of both. Thus we commonly speak of wheat, barley, or oats, collectively; and very seldom find occasion for any other forms of these words. But chafferers at the corn-market, in spite of Cobbett,[154] will talk about wheats and barleys, meaning different kinds[155] or qualities; and a gardener, if he pleases, will tell of an oat, (as does Milton, in his Lycidas,) meaning a single seed or plant. But, because wheat or barley generally means that sort of grain in mass, if he will mention a single kernel, he must call it a grain of wheat or a barleycorn. And these he may readily make plural, to specify any particular number; as, five grains of wheat, or three barleycorns.
OBS. 31.—My chief concern is with general principles, but the illustration of these requires many particular examples—even far more than I have room to quote. The word amends is represented by Murray and others, as being singular as well as plural; but Webster's late dictionaries exhibit amend as singular, and amends as plural, with definitions that needlessly differ, though not much. I judge "an amends" to be bad English; and prefer the regular singular, an amend. The word is of French origin, and is sometimes written in English with a needless final e; as, "But only to make a kind of honourable amende to God."—Rollin's Ancient Hist., Vol. ii, p. 24. The word remains Dr. Webster puts down as plural only, and yet uses it himself in the singular: "The creation of a Dictator, even for a few months, would have buried every remain of freedom."—Webster's Essays, p. 70. There are also other authorities for this usage, and also for some other nouns that are commonly thought to have no singular; as, "But Duelling is unlawful and murderous, a remain of the ancient Gothic barbarity."—Brown's Divinity, p. 26. "I grieve with the old, for so many additional inconveniences, more than their small remain of life seemed destined to undergo."—POPE: in Joh. Dict. "A disjunctive syllogism is one whose major premise is disjunctive."—Hedge's Logic. "Where should he have this gold? It is some poor fragment, some slender ort of his remainder."—SHAK.: Timon of Athens.
OBS. 32.—There are several nouns which are usually alike in both numbers. Thus, deer, folk, fry, gentry, grouse, hose, neat, sheep, swine, vermin, and rest, (i.e. the rest, the others, the residue,) are regular singulars, but they are used also as plurals, and that more frequently. Again, alms, aloes, bellows, means, news, odds, shambles, and species, are proper plurals, but most of them are oftener construed as singulars. Folk and fry are collective nouns. Folk means people; a folk, a people: as, "The ants are a people not strong;"—"The conies are but a feeble folk."—Prov., xxx, 25, 26. "He laid his hands on a few sick folk, and healed them."—Mark, vi, 5. Folks, which ought to be the plural of folk, and equivalent to peoples, is now used with reference to a plurality of individuals, and the collective word seems liable to be entirely superseded by it. A fry is a swarm of young fishes, or of any other little creatures living in water: so called, perhaps, because their motions often make the surface fry. Several such swarms might properly be called fries; but this form can never be applied to the individuals, without interfering with the other. "So numerous was the fry."—Cowper. "The fry betake themselves to the neighbouring pools."—Quarterly Review. "You cannot think more contemptuously of these gentry than they were thought of by the true prophets."—Watson's Apology, p. 93. "Grouse, a heathcock."—Johnson.
"The 'squires in scorn will fly the house
For better game, and look for grouse."—Swift.
"Here's an English tailor, come hither for stealing out of a French hose."—Shak. "He, being in love, could not see to garter his hose."—Id. Formerly, the plural was hosen: "Then these men were bound, in their coats, their hosen, and their hats."—Dan., iii, 21. Of sheep, Shakspeare has used the regular plural: "Two hot sheeps, marry!"—Love's Labour Lost, Act ii, Sc. 1.
"Who both by his calf and his lamb will be known,
May well kill a neat and a sheep of his own."—Tusser.
"His droves of asses, camels, herds of neat, And flocks of sheep, grew shortly twice as great."—Sandys.
"As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout."—Prov., xi, 22. "A herd of many swine, feeding."—Matt., viii, 30. "An idle person only lives to spend his time, and eat the fruits of the earth, like a vermin or a wolf."—Taylor. "The head of a wolf, dried and hanged up, will scare away vermin."—Bacon. "Cheslip, a small vermin that lies under stones or tiles."—SKINNER: in Joh. and in Web. Dict. "This is flour, the rest is bran."—"And the rest were blinded."—Rom., xi, 7. "The poor beggar hath a just demand of an alms."—Swift. "Thine alms are come up for a memorial before God."—Acts, x, 4. "The draught of air performed the function of a bellows."—Robertson's Amer., ii, 223. "As the bellows do."—Bicknell's Gram., ii, 11. "The bellows are burned."—Jer., vi, 29. "Let a gallows be made."—Esther, v, 14. "Mallows are very useful in medicine."—Wood's Dict. "News," says Johnson, "is without the singular, unless it be considered as singular."—Dict. "So is good news from a far country."—Prov., xxv, 25. "Evil news rides fast, while good news baits."—Milton. "When Rhea heard these news, she fled."—Raleigh. "News were brought to the queen."—Hume's Hist., iv, 426. "The news I bring are afflicting, but the consolation with which they are attended, ought to moderate your grief."—Gil Blas, Vol. ii, p. 20. "Between these two cases there are great odds."—Hooker. "Where the odds is considerable."—Campbell. "Determining on which side the odds lie."—Locke. "The greater are the odds that he mistakes his author."—Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 1. "Though thus an odds unequally they meet."—Rowe's Lucan, B. iv, l. 789. "Preëminent by so much odds."—Milton. "To make a shambles of the parliament house."—Shak. "The earth has been, from the beginning, a great Aceldama, a shambles of blood."—Christian's Vade-Mecum, p. 6. "A shambles" sounds so inconsistent, I should rather say, "A shamble." Johnson says, the etymology of the word is uncertain; Webster refers it to the Saxon scamel: it means a butcher's stall, a meat-market; and there would seem to be no good reason for the s, unless more than one such place is intended. "Who sells his subjects to the shambles of a foreign power."—Pitt. "A special idea is called by the schools a species."—Watts. "He intendeth the care of species, or common natures."—Brown. "ALOE, (al~o) n.; plu. ALOES."—Webster's Dict., and Worcester's. "But it was aloe itself to lose the reward."—Tupper's Crock of Gold, p. 16.
"But high in amphitheatre above,
His arms the everlasting aloes threw." —Campbell, G. of W., ii, 10.
OBS. 33.—There are some nouns, which, though really regular in respect to possessing the two forms for the two numbers, are not free from irregularity in the manner of their application. Thus means is the regular plural of mean; and, when the word is put for mediocrity, middle point, place, or degree, it takes both forms, each in its proper sense; but when it signifies things instrumental, or that which is used to effect an object, most writers use means for the singular as well as for the plural:[156] as, "By this means"—"By those means,"