plural, a. (n.)
(ˈplʊərəl)
Also 4–5 plurel, 5–6 -ell(e, 5–7 -all.
[a. OF. plurel (12th c.), or ad. L. plūrālis (Quint.), f. plūs, plūr- more: see -al1.]
A. adj.
1. Gram. Applied to the form of a word which denotes more than one (or, in languages having a dual form, more than two): opposed to singular.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. x. 237 Three propre persones ac nouȝt in plurel noumbre, For al is but on god. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 171 He moste be i-cleped Argi in þe plural nombre. 1483 Cath. Angl. 285/1 Plurelle, pluralis. 1530 Palsgr. 4 The thyrde parsonnes plurelles of verbes actyves in the frenche tonge..ende in ent. 1631 Gouge God's Arrows iii. §72. 320 Nor is it [Jehovah] declined: nor hath it the plurall number. 1764 W. Primatt Accentus Redivivi 111 Provided they were third persons plural. 1844 Ld. Brougham Brit. Const. ix. §1 (1862) 113 They speak in the plural number, and the reader is utterly deceived. 1845 Stoddart Gram. in Encycl. Metrop. (1847) I. 28/1 Quintilian..observes, that there were some writers..who contended that the dual number, in the third person plural of verbs, was properly marked by the termination e; as consedere if two persons sate together, consederunt if more than two; but, adds he, this rule is observed by none of our best writers. |
2. More than one in number; consisting of, containing, pertaining to, or equivalent to, more than one. plural community, a community made up of culturally different ethnic groups; plural democracy (see quots.); plural economy, the economy of a plural society within which the different ethnic groups keep, to a great extent, their own economic systems; plural livings: see plurality 3; plural marriage (see marriage 1 d); plural society, a society composed of different ethnic groups or cultural traditions; a society in which ethnic differences, etc., are reflected in the political structure (see quot. 1971); plural vote, the right of giving more than one vote, or of voting in more than one parliamentary constituency; hence plural voter, plural voting.
| 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. v. iv. 52 Better haue none Then plurall faith, which is too much by one. a 1631 Donne Serm. vii. 66 God is a plurall God, and offers himselfe to all collectively; God is a singular God, and offers himselfe to every man distributively. 1860 Mill Repr. Govt. (1865) 73/1 Until there shall have been devised..some mode of plural voting which may assign to education, as such, the degree of superior influence due to it, and sufficient as a counterpoise to the numerical weight of the least educated class. 1869 Utah Mag. 18 Sept. 310/1 The Mormon proposition is not to make plural marriage obligatory on the world, but to declare its necessity and legitimacy under certain circumstances. 1895 Daily Chron. 6 Dec. 6/7 One of the few beneficed clergymen holding plural livings. 1897 Westm. Gaz. 10 Aug. 8/1 In spite of the law which forbids it, polygamy still prevails in Utah... In Salt Lake City they don't call it polygamy, but ‘plural marriage’. 1906 I. Zangwill in Times 29 Oct. 10/5 In another leader on the very same page you defend plural voting on the ground of the necessity of ‘the representation of local interests’. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 480 Dragging a lorry on which are..plaster figures..representing the new nine muses, Commerce, Operatic Music,..Plural Voting, Gastronomy. 1939 J. S. Furnivall Netherlands India xiii. 446 One finds a plural society also in independent states, such as Siam, where Natives, Chinese and Europeans have distinct economic functions, and live apart as separate social orders. Ibid., Some Dutch writers use the term dual or plural economy..to connote the co⁓existence within the same political community of two or more distinct sets of different economic principles. 1947 Sun (Baltimore) 26 Nov. 5/2 Eighteen Utah residents..were charged with conspiring to advocate plural marriage. 1952 B. Davidson Rep. Southern Afr. i. vii. 79 They hold in their hands the saving—or the sinking—of a plural society in South Africa. Ibid. ii. vii. 138 Clearly confronted with the fact of a plural community, they steadfastly refuse to recognize the plurality. 1963 W. N. Stephens Family in Cross-Cultural Perspective (1964) ii. 33 This chapter will deal with the last three forms: polygyny, polyandry, and group marriage, the forms of plural marriage. 1965 New Statesman 19 Nov. 796/2 The common theme..is the theory of the West Indies as ‘plural societies’, that is, societies lacking institutions, traditions and habits common to all members. 1966 Jacobs & Zink Mod. Govt. (ed. 3) i. vi. 70 Plural voting..resulted from the British belief that a person should be allowed to vote in every district where he was qualified... The Representation of the People Act of 1948 eliminated it completely. 1971 Race XII. 462 It appears theoretically useful, then, to partition the universe of culturally diverse societies into: (1) ‘plural societies’, in which politics tends (exclusively) to follow ethnic lines, and (2) ‘pluralistic societies’, in which politically relevant issues and actions do not always coincide with ethnic groups. 1977 Time 21 Nov. 12/1 What is at stake, ultimately, is whether the government will be able to carry on with the Afrikaners' grand scheme of apartheid—also known as ‘separate development’ and more recently as ‘plural democracy’. 1978 Guardian Weekly 4 June 7/3 Apartheid—which has since [1948] undergone minor ideological mutations and several changes in name... Plural democracy, as apartheid is now known. |
B. n. a. Gram. The plural number. b. The fact or condition of there being more than one.
plural of excellence or majesty, plural intensive, terms applied in Hebrew Grammar to a plural n. used as the name of a single person; the typical example being ĕlōhīm, lit. gods, deities, used as the name of (the one) God.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. cxxxiii. (Bodl. MS.), Porrum..is hoc Porrum in þe singuler & hij porri in þe plurel. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. ii. ii. §56 If respect be had to the severall Arts there professed, Sigebert founded Schools in the plurall. 1756 F. Greville Maxims 27 We confess our faults in the plural, and deny them in the singular. 1770 Langhorne Plutarch (1879) I. 202/2 The number three, as being the first of plurals. 1835 Court Mag. VI. 186/1 This literary fashion of speaking in the plural, sadly puzzles an old gentleman unused to composition, like myself. 1837 G. Phillips Syriac Gram. 103 A plural of excellence the Syrians have not. c 1860 Gesenius's Heb. & Chaldee Lex. 30/2 The plural of majesty, [ĕlōhīm]; occurs more than two thousand times. 1898 F. Brown Heb.-Eng. Lex. 43 Pl. intensive. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 277 Do not make a singular into a plural, as the facetious say of those who break a thing. |