Cherubim and Seraphim are
real Hebrew plurals; but such is the propensity in men to form regular
inflections in language, that these words are used as in the singular, with
regular plurals, cherubims, seraphims. In like manner, the Hebrew singulars, cherub and seraph, have obtained regular plurals.
The influence of this principle
is very obvious in other foreign words, which the sciences have enlisted into
our service; as may be observed in the words radius, focus, index, &c.
which now begin to be used with regular English plural terminations. This
tendency to regularity is, by all means, to be encouraged; for a prime excellence in language is the
uniformity of its inflections. The facts here stated will be evinced by a
few authorities.
“Vesiculated corallines are found
adhering to rocks, shells and fucuses.” Encyc.
art. Corallines.
“Many fetuses are deficient at the extremities.” Dar. Zoon. Sect. 1,
3, 9.
“Five hundred denariuses.” Baker’s Livy, 4. 491.
“The radiations of that tree and
its fruit, the principal focuses of
which are in the Maldivia islands.” Hunter’s St. Pierre, vol. 3.
“The reduction of metallic calxes into metals.” Ency.
art. Metallurgy.
See also Mediums, Campbell’s Rhetoric, 1, 150—Calyxes, Darwin’s Zoon. 1, 74—Caudexes,
Phytologia, 2, 3—Irises, Zoon. 1.
444. Reguluses and residuums. Ency. art. Metal.
In authorities equally
respectable, we find stamens, stratums,
funguses; and in pursuance of the principle, we may expect to see lamens for lamina; lamels for lamellæ; baryte
for barytes; pyrite for pyrites; strontite for strontites; stalactite for the plural stalactites. These reforms are necessary
to enable us to distinguish the singular from the plural number. (Noah
Webster, Noah Webster’s First Edition of
An American Dictionary of the English Language. [Anaheim, Calif.:
Foundation for American Christian Education, 2006], Logos Bible Software edition)
