Correct Usage of "Myriad"?
Mardon
this sentence: "I agree for a myriad of reasons."
The person calling them to task cited this reference:
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/myriad.html
I thought I'd post the issue here and see what the 'experts' think.
Alan Jones
"Mardon" <mgb7...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9AF37B1211D3Dm...@194.177.96.78...
I'm not an 'expert' but I have a dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary
categorises the word as both noun and adjective, and its citations include
instances both with "of" and without it. There is no usage comment.
Alan Jones
Jan Hyde (VB MVP)
on Thu, 7 Aug 2008 16:35:57 +0200 (CEST) bearing the
following fruit:
"Usage Note: Throughout most of its history in English
myriad was used as a noun, as in a myriad of men. In the
19th century it began to be used in poetry as an adjective,
as in myriad men. Both usages in English are acceptable, as
in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Myriad myriads of lives." This
poetic, adjectival use became so well entrenched generally
that many people came to consider it as the only correct
use. In fact, both uses in English are parallel with those
of the original ancient Greek. The Greek word murias, from
which myriad derives, could be used as either a noun or an
adjective, but the noun murias was used in general prose and
in mathematics while the adjective murias was used only in
poetry"
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/myriad
--
Jan Hyde (VB MVP)
Andrew Heenan
> In another newsgroup that I read, someone was recently chided for posting
> this sentence: "I agree for a myriad of reasons."
It's not wrong; but "I agree for a myriad reasons" is a more elegant use of
the language.
--
Andrew
http://www.wordskit.com/
http://www.flayme.com/
Claude Weil
"Myriad" stands for "ten thousand". I'd be surprised if the chap had
ten thousand reasons to agree.
CW
Robert Lieblich
>
> "Mardon" <mgb7...@hotmail.com> wrote ...
> > In another newsgroup that I read, someone was recently chided for posting
> > this sentence: "I agree for a myriad of reasons."
>
> It's not wrong; but "I agree for a myriad reasons" is a more elegant use of
> the language.
Now we know your taste in such matters. I consider "for a myriad of
reasons" far more elegaqnt. Now you know my taste in such matters.
Not much more to say, is there?
--
Bob Lieblich
Delicious poster
Andrew Heenan
> "Myriad" stands for "ten thousand". I'd be surprised if the chap had
> ten thousand reasons to agree.
Archaic Ten thousand.
These days it usually means a 'very large but indeterminate number'
How reasonable that might be would probably depend on the context.
Adam Funk
>>In another newsgroup that I read, someone was recently chided for posting
>>this sentence: "I agree for a myriad of reasons."
...
> "Myriad" stands for "ten thousand". I'd be surprised if the chap had
> ten thousand reasons to agree.
It seems to be a reasonable metaphorical use, rather like "I have a
ton of work to do today."
--
History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of
urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure.
(Thurgood Marshall)
Pete
news:489B98BC...@yahoo.com:
Not much. A little though!
There are loads of 'loads of's. 'A myriad reasons' is unusual. At least,
I don't hear it very often nowadays. Don't often see red squirrels in my
neck of the woods either. Even if I preferred their grey usurpers I'd be
sorry to lose all the red ones.
Anyway, your taste in such matters is interesting. A bit. One of my
reasons for following this group is to see what people think of English
usage.
Peter
mm
wrote:
>"Mardon" <mgb7...@hotmail.com> wrote ...
>> In another newsgroup that I read, someone was recently chided for posting
>> this sentence: "I agree for a myriad of reasons."
>
>It's not wrong; but "I agree for a myriad reasons" is a more elegant use of
>the language.
Is this not a typo? I thought the two choices were a myriad of
reasosn and myriad reasons.
If you are inclined to email me
for some reason, remove NOPSAM :-)
sandeeps...@gmail.com
THE COLONEL
news:08b50cef-4725-41c9...@googlegroups.com...
Daniel James
> On Thursday, 7 August 2008 15:35:57 UTC+1, Mardon wrote:
>> In another newsgroup that I read, someone was recently chided for
>> posting this sentence: "I agree for a myriad of reasons."
>>
>> The person calling them to task cited this reference:
>> http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/myriad.html
> Whenever I think about the best way to use this word, I think of the
> word 'many'. You wouldn't say for a 'many' and I know it sounds odd
> to drop the 'a' ahead of it, but that's what I've been advised.
has come to be used to mean "a great many".
I would write: "I agree, for myriad reasons" omitting both the "a" and
the "of" (as the article suggests one should) ... in fact the "of" seems
more wrong than the "a". You might say "I agree, for a million reasons"
but "I agree, for a million of reasons" is clearly wrong.
OTOH "I agree, for millions of reasons" is fine -- and so should "I
agree, for myriads of reasons" be.
Cheers,
Daniel.
THE COLONEL
LOL