Grammar: bicep vs biceps (slow day...)

[Dag]

Besides, to be consistent, of course, those who want to insist that "biceps" is singular (which it technically is) would have to also insist on "bicepses" when flexing both arms simultaneously -- and that's just never going to happen...

Let's hope not. However, it is fun to say and I'll think I'll start saying it for my own amusement.

[Karl Schudt]

=>bicipites

bicipit.es ADJ 3 1 NOM P C POS

biceps, (gen.), bicipitis ADJ [XXXCO]
bicips, (gen.), bicipitis ADJ [BXXDS] Early lesser
two-headed; with two summits; having two parts, two-fold;

No to bicep or bicepses.

[Charles Jenkins]

OK, I've checked out a few more common dictionary sources and they tend to list both "biceps" or "bicepses" as acceptable plurals -- but the singular is *always* "biceps" and never <bicep>.

My wife put it nicely when she said "It works linguistically just like 'Cyclops' -- nobody mistakenly says 'Cyclop' for 'only one monster'." So, there you have it.

Though I have to admit, I have no idea how you talk about more than one Cyclops. It's just never come up.

"Cyclopes"

[Norton]

Heh. Something I can competently answer.

Basically, what tallison’s wife said. Just as Cyclops is singular both in English and in the original Greek, the word "biceps" is singular in Latin. The Latin plural is "bicipites," but English generally prefers to use its own native suffixes (-s/-es) to form the plurals of words borrowed from foreign languages, often even those from Latin. You can get away with saying either cacti or cactuses, but you’d never get away with saying with "campi" instead of campuses, despite campi being perfectly correct Latin. (Notice also how cactus and campus both feel singular in English, despite ending in s). I imagine English prefers biceps to “bicepses” for the plural because the s in biceps already has a vaguely plural feel to the English-speaking ear, and because “bicepses” sounds stupid (“reasons of euphony”).

But you do see the -cipit- stem (which isn’t in itself plural) of the Latin ‘bicipites’ in other English words, for example in ‘precipitous,’ ‘precipitate,’ and ‘precipitation.’ Just as biceps (bi-ceps) means ‘two-headed,’ praeceps (pre-ceps) means ‘head-first,’ or “headlong.” Moreover, you can think of the -ate in ‘precipitate’ as meaning ‘make [do] ___’, so that if “xate” means “make do x”, “precipitate” means “make [go] head-first" -- and hence, “cause to fall”; if there existed an English verb 'bicipitate,' it would literally mean "make two-headed").

So, uh...the plural is biceps, definitely biceps, if anybody finds this useful in the future. I mean, I’m not the kind of guy who’d arrogantly try to dictate corrections to the helpful, informative articles that have generously been posted here for people to read for free ...

[Alexander Dargatz]

*lol* good post, Norton.
A man has to keep his priorities straight. Important things first!