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NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2012 01:54:14 -0500
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: Plural but singular in construction
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Mike Lyle:
> I can't think of one. But, at a tangent, "scissors" is interesting.
> Standard English handles it like other inseparable pairs - trousers,
> spectacles, etc. But as late as the 19th C it was quite normal to
> speak of "a scissors" instead of "a pair of sc." - and in Welsh
> English it still is.

Also in railway English.  This is a scissors:

   http://www.tokyu-car.co.jp/eng/rs/img/rt_02.jpg

(Also called a "scissors crossing", "scissors crossover", etc.)
-- 
Mark Brader | "I don't have to stay here to be insulted."
Toronto     | "I realize that.  You're insulted everywhere, I imagine."
m...@vex.net |                                     -- Theodore Sturgeon