Friday, April 2, 2010

Word Play

I am somewhat known among my colleagues as a grammar/usage freak -- maybe that means I'm of an age where the rules of grammar were still drilled into our young heads way back when.

Anyway, a colleague wrote me stumped by the use of the word myriad. He wanted to know which was corrrect: a myriad of options or myriad options.

Hmmmmm... I went to dictionary.com and saw the myriad can be used as both an adjective and a noun, so either was right.

What I learned is that the root of myriad is from the Greek word myrias which means "ten thousand."

I emailed him back with my ruling to which he replied that he guesses myriad is like the F-word -- how you can use it all different ways!

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