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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.  |
There's always the Cambridge English Dictionary as a falllback.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dic...ish/referendum
Or even Oxford Living Distionaries.
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/referendum
From example sentences.
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‘He could also claim a legitimacy built on a succession of victories in irreproachably clean popular votes in referendums and multi-party elections.’
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