Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
An American English online dictionary without any discussion or etymology? No thanks ...
The Oxford English Dictionary says no, but seeing as it’s behind a paywall the closest we can get to its wisdom is sadly via a discussion of it at Wikipedia ...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referendum
In short, because it is coined in English as an English noun, and not according to its Latin usage, it should be pluralised according to English grammatical rules, not Latin ones. Hence referendums, not referenda.
Dictionary.com is simply recording the fact that the word is used in that way, not necessarily that it is correct to do so.
But we digress.  |
Interesting side debate.
Annoying we can't see the OED.
Side point: ianch99's link referenced Collins (a UK publisher not US) and it has referenda available as a plural. My preference is referendums for as you say, referendum has been brought into the English language.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/di...ish/referendum