Plurals of hyphenated words 1

[rjoubert]

I was just reading an article on a Marine drill sergeant facing abuse charges. The article states that two other drill sergeants could face special courts-martial. Is that pluralization of court-martial correct? It doesn't sound right to me, but it does follow other words like brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law. Can you think of other cases of the pluralization of a hyphenated word/phrase?

 

[razalas]

In military usage, the term general, as part of an officer's title, is etymologically an adjective,...

Is this correct?

It seems to me that 'general' is the noun and that 'brigadier', 'major', etc. are adjectives modifying the noun.

Code what you mean,
and mean what you code!
But by all means post your code!

Razalas

 

[rjoubert]

Perhaps they mean when you put the title "General", "Brigadier General", "Major General", or "Lieutenant General" in front of the officer's last name, the title is an adjective.

 

[CajunCenturion]

In military usage, the term general, as part of an officer's title, is etymologically an adjective,...

Is this correct?

Yes an no. Historically, with respect to military ranks, there were a number of general officers including sergeant generals, captain generals, colonel generals, and sergeant major generals. In all these cases, 'general' functions as an adjective, just as it does for attorney general. What it means is the person of that rank is authorized to act on all things related to that position. In other words, it's akin to a colonel general and opposed to a colonel specific. A colonel specific has some specific command, whereas the colonel general is generally responsible for the colonels. That's the same for attorney general, as he or she is the attorney responsible for all the attorneys; as well as Surgeon General. That also explains why the plurals of these are attorneys general and surgeons general.

The no part of the answer relates to Brigadier General and Lieutenant General. Again, they etymological history of the rank Brigadier General was one of position, and not one of rank. The Brigadier General was the person in command of the brigade. The Lieutenant General was the person who was second-in-command.


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