| Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993. |
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| saturnalia (n.) |
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| is a plural, pronounced SAT-uhr-NAIL-yuh. The Romans held these hectic feasts in the god Saturn’s honor, and the word has generalized to mean all types of wild parties and drunken orgies. Today, however, we usually construe saturnalia as singular and make a new plural, so that one orgy is a saturnalia and two or more orgies are saturnalias. Both Latin and English patterns are Standard, in divided usage. See FOREIGN PLURALS. | 1 |
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| | | The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Copyright © 1993 Columbia University Press. |
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