[Sidenote: Occasionally singular words.]
Sometimes, however, a few of these words have the construction of
singular nouns. Notice the following:--
They cannot get on without each other any more than one blade of
_a scissors_ can cut without the other.--J.L. LAUGHLIN.
A relic which, if I recollect right, he pronounced to have been
_a tongs_.--IRVING.
Besides this, it is furnished with _a forceps_.--GOLDSMITH.
The air,--was it subdued when...the wind was trained only to turn
a windmill, carry off chaff, or work in _a bellows_?--PROF. DANA.
In Early Modern English _thank_ is found.
What _thank_ have ye?--_Bible_
47. Three words were _originally singular_, the present ending _-s_
not being really a plural inflection, but they are regularly construed
as plural: _alms, eaves, riches_.
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