Quick, What’s the Plural of Dwarf?
August 11, 2004
Bear with me here. I’m watching “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” and the very first question is about Snow White being helped by seven dwarfs. I’m looking at the answers and seeing dwarfs and thinking… that’s not right is it? It’s dwarves.
So I check imdb, and lo and behold, it’s Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs. So I do a lookup “dwarfs dwarves” and find this:
Traditionally, the plural of dwarf was “dwarfs”, but ever since J. R. R. Tolkien used dwarves in his fantasy-epic The Lord of the Rings, the plural forms “dwarfs” and “dwarves” have been used interchangeably. (When discussing Tolkien’s universe, though, only the latter should be used.)
Go fucking figure! Basically if you spell it with a “v” you play too much D&D or other related nonsense. How have I gone this long without realizing this?
Random note: Tonight I made pasta with ground turkey and I dedicated it to former roomie Axel Schwarz. Maybe tomorrow I’ll do his other patented recipe of Beans and Rice With Tons of Crap On It.
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August 11th, 2004 at 10:51 pm
Also: the word “judgment” can be spelled with an extra “e” like so: “judgement.” Though to me that looks funny.
Also: don’t get me started on grey/gray.
But: sadly, I did know about the plural of dwarfs because it was a trivia question in some newspaper column I read when I was a kid, something about words with the letter sequence “rfs” in them (surfs, turfs, dwarfs, and I forget). Remember when you got information from the newspaper? Remember newspapers?
August 11th, 2004 at 11:05 pm
I’ve always spelled it Judgment, but I remember watching T2 and thinking it looked kind of weird in the T2 logo.
I’ve always spelled it dwarves though. Weird.
Apparently I learn all my spelling from nerdy sources.
August 12th, 2004 at 1:03 pm
Well, I always spelled it dwarves, but maybe that’s because of playing too much D&D as a kid. Never heard of the “rfs” rule. Does that mean that someone has tried to spell the third person singular conjugation of wave-riding “surves”?
I, too, remember being thinking the sans “e” Judgment in T2 looked strange, causing me to look up the correct spelling in the dictionary.
Good to see the turkey pasta tradition continues, although, ironically, I don’t cook it anymore. Pat has carried the torch, though. Beans and rice, however, is still a staple in my apartment, although it took a hiatus for a couple of years.
By the way, since when did you start cooking again?
August 12th, 2004 at 3:32 pm
they’re wrong. It’s dwarves.
August 12th, 2004 at 8:40 pm
apparently, “cooky” is as acceptable as “cookie.”
on which i call FUCKING BULLSHIT.
August 13th, 2004 at 12:09 am
Man, “cooky” is beyond bullshit. That’s the kind of shit you remember just for Scrabble.
August 13th, 2004 at 7:47 am
“Cooky” is as stupid as “qat” for CAT, which is apparently acceptible in SCRABBLE.
I spelled it “judgement” until I took a job working for a lawyer, who caught it and corrected it for me. He told me the “e” was the Brit spelling, but he may have been trying to spare my feelings.
August 13th, 2004 at 10:38 am
a qat is a shrub cultivated in the Middle East and Africa, as is a kat. i just looked it up.
August 13th, 2004 at 5:22 pm
Are the British responsible for “cooky”? I feel like I saw that in books I used to read as a kid that may or may not have been British. No wonder we quit!
August 13th, 2004 at 6:57 pm
I agree: “cooky” is bullshit. That sounds more like the adjective form of the word “cook,” though that of course makes no sense.
But when I was talking about this very problem with my roommate, he brought up the interesting dilemma: “So does this mean that you now have to spell it ‘surves’ and ‘turves’?” Which Axel brought up also, but I tend to reiterate. Or, actually, technically, iterate.
Okay, so: knife and knives, right, because “knifes” is the verb, yeah? “I was knifed in the back,” versus “Third prize: set of steak knives.”
Um, I had a point here but I forgot it. I’m losing my judgment. It had something to do with the other use of the word “dwarf,” e.g. one says that the man was dwarfed by the shadow of the tower, say, and not “dwarved.” But there was also the whole nerd source thing. Oh yeah: so are blogs the new science fiction?
I shouldn’t start drinking so early on a Friday.