The Grammar of English Grammars. Goold Brown
Dr. Johnson says the use of means for mean is not very grammatical; and, among his examples for the true use of the word, he has the following: "Pamela's noble heart would needs gratefully make known the valiant mean of her safety."—Sidney. "Their virtuous conversation was a mean to work the heathens' conversion."—Hooker. "Whether his wits should by that mean have been taken from him."—Id. "I'll devise a mean to draw the Moor out of the way."—Shak. "No place will please me so, no mean of death."—Id. "Nature is made better by no mean, but nature makes that mean."—Id. Dr. Lowth also questioned the propriety of construing means as singular, and referred to these same authors as authorities for preferring the regular form. Buchanan insists that means is right in the plural only; and that, "The singular should be used as perfectly analogous; by this mean, by that mean."—English Syntax, p. 103. Lord Kames, likewise, appears by his practice to have been of the same opinion: "Of this the child must be sensible intuitively, for it has no other mean of knowledge."—Elements of Criticism, Vol. i, p. 357. "And in both the same mean is employed."—Ib. ii, 271. Caleb Alexander, too, declares "this means," "that means." and "a means," to be "ungrammatical."—Gram., p. 58. But common usage has gone against the suggestions of these critics, and later grammarians have rather confirmed the irregularity, than attempted to reform it.
OBS. 34.—Murray quotes sixteen good authorities to prove that means may be singular; but whether it ought to be so or not, is still a disputable point. Principle is for the regular word mean, and good practice favours the irregularity, but is still divided. Cobbett, to the disgrace of grammar, says, "Mean, as a noun, is never used in the singular. It, like some other words, has broken loose from all principle and rule. By universal consent, it is become always a plural, whether used with singular or plural pronouns and articles, or not."—E. Gram., p. 144. This is as ungrammatical, as it is untrue. Both mean and means are sufficiently authorized in the singular: "The prospect which by this mean is opened to you."—Melmoth's Cicero. "Faith in this doctrine never terminates in itself, but is a mean, to holiness as an end."—Dr. Chalmers, Sermons, p. v. "The mean of basely affronting him."—Brown's Divinity, p. 19. "They used every mean to prevent the re-establishment of their religion."—Dr. Jamieson's Sacred Hist., i, p. 20. "As a necessary mean to prepare men for the discharge of that duty."—Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 153. "Greatest is the power of a mean, when its power is least suspected."—Tupper's Book of Thoughts, p. 37. "To the deliberative orator the reputation of unsullied virtue is not only useful, as a mean of promoting his general influence, it is also among his most efficient engines of persuasion, upon every individual occasion."—J. Q. Adams's Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory, i, 352. "I would urge it upon you, as the most effectual mean of extending your respectability and usefulness in the world."—Ib., ii, 395. "Exercise will be admitted to be a necessary mean of improvement."—Blair's Rhet., p. 343. "And by that means we have now an early prepossession in their favour."—Ib., p. 348. "To abolish all sacrifice by revealing a better mean of reconciliation."—Keith's Evidences, p. 46. "As a mean of destroying the distinction."—Ib., p. 3. "Which however is by no mean universally the case."—Religious World Displayed, Vol. iii, p. 155.
OBS. 35.—Again, there are some nouns, which, though they do not lack the regular plural form, are sometimes used in a plural sense without the plural termination. Thus manner makes the plural manners, which last is now generally used in the peculiar sense of behaviour, or deportment, but not always: it sometimes means methods, modes, or ways; as, "At sundry times and in divers manners."—Heb., i, 1. "In the manners above mentioned."—Butler's Analogy, p. 100. "There be three manners of trials in England."—COWELL: Joh. Dict., w. Jury. "These two manners of representation."—Lowth's Gram., p. 15. "These are the three primary modes, or manners, of expression."—Lowth's Gram., p. 83. "In arrangement, too, various manners suit various styles."—Campbell's Phil. of Rhet., p. 172. "Between the two manners."—Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 35. "Here are three different manners of asserting."—Barnard's Gram., p. 59. But manner has often been put for sorts, without the s; as, "The tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits."—Rev., xxii, 2. "All manner of men assembled here in arms."—Shak. "All manner of outward advantages."—Atterbury. Milton used kind in the same way, but not very properly; as, "All kind of living creatures."—P. Lost, B. iv, l. 286. This irregularity it would be well to avoid. Manners may still, perhaps, be proper for modes or ways; and all manner, if allowed, must be taken in the sense of a collective noun; but for sorts, kinds, classes, or species, I would use neither the plural nor the singular of this word. The word heathen, too, makes the regular plural heathens, and yet is often used in a plural sense without the s; as, "Why do the heathen rage?"—Psalms, ii, 1. "Christianity was formerly propagated among the heathens."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 217. The word youth, likewise, has the same peculiarities.
OBS. 36.—Under the present head come names of fishes, birds, or other things, when the application of the singular is extended from the individual to the species, so as to supersede the plural by assuming its construction: as, Sing. "A great fish."—Jonah, i, 17. Plur. "For the multitude of fishes'."—John, xxi, 6. "A very great multitude of fish."—Ezekiel, xlvii, 9.[157] The name of the genus being liable to this last construction, men seem to have thought that the species should follow; consequently, the regular plurals of some very common names of fishes are scarcely known at all. Hence some grammarians affirm, that salmon, mackerel, herring, perch, tench, and several others, are alike in both numbers, and ought never to be used in the plural form. I am not so fond of honouring these anomalies. Usage is here as unsettled, as it is arbitrary; and, if the expression of plurality is to be limited to either form exclusively, the regular plural ought certainly to be preferred. But, for fish taken in bulk, the singular form seems more appropriate; as, "These vessels take from thirty-eight to forty-five quintals of cod and pollock, and six thousand barrels of mackerel, yearly."—Balbi's Geog., p. 28.
OBS. 37.—The following examples will illustrate the unsettled usage just mentioned, and from them the reader may judge for himself what is right. In quoting, at second-hand, I generally think it proper to make double references; and especially in citing authorities after Johnson, because he so often gives the same passages variously. But he himself is reckoned good authority in things literary. Be it so. I regret the many proofs of his fallibility. "Hear you this Triton of the minnows?"—Shak. "The shoal of herrings was of an immense extent."—Murray's Key, p. 185. "Buy my herring fresh."—SWIFT: in Joh. Dict. "In the fisheries of Maine, cod, herring, mackerel alewives, salmon, and other fish, are taken."—Balbi's Geog., p. 23. "MEASE, n. The quantity of 500; as, a mease of herrings."—Webster's Dict. "We shall have plenty of mackerel this season."—ADDISON: in Joh. Dict. "Mackarel is the same in both numbers. Gay has improperly mackarels."—Churchill's Gram., p. 208. "They take salmon and trouts by groping and tickling them under the bellies."—CAREW: in Joh. Dict. "The pond will keep trout and salmon in their seasonable plight."—Id., ib., w. Trout. "Some fish are preserved fresh in vinegar, as turbot."—Id., ib., w. Turbot. "Some fish are boiled and preserved fresh in vinegar, as tunny and turbot."—Id., ib., w. Tunny. "Of round fish, there are brit, sprat, barn, smelts."—Id., ib., w. Smelt. "For sprats and spurlings for your house."—TUSSEE: ib., w. Spurling. "The coast is plentifully stored with pilchards, herrings, and haddock."—CAREW: ib., w. Haddock. "The coast is plentifully stored with round fish, pilchard, herring, mackerel, and cod"—Id., ib., w. Herring. "The coast is plentifully stored with shellfish, sea-hedgehogs, scallops, pilcherd, herring, and pollock."—Id., ib., w. Pollock. "A roach is a fish of no great reputation for his dainty