Grammar Girl here, today's topic is when plurals have no singular.

A listener named Brent called in with this question.

Hi, grammar girl.

This is Brent.

I have a question.

How come pants, trousers, slacks, cordoroids are all plural, even though there's only one

of them?

Thank you.

Guest writer, Sal Glen writes, nouns are sociable.

They like to be more than singular, a two things out with teeth, a matrix is bored

without the company of matrices, and a crisis can't wait to mingle with other crises.

Even proper nouns that are the names of places and people enjoy being a few instead of one.

There are too many handwrecks in this boat for my taste, said Daphne.

But in every community there's an exception, and a plural noun may refuse to be singular,

like those in Brent's examples.

This type of noun is known as a defective noun, also called pluratantum.

The appearance of these words is more the effect of time on language than the fault of lexicographers.

Besides occurring in English, defective nouns also occur in Arabic, Greek, and Latin.

Let's start with the measles.

The name for the nasty childhood illness that's caused unknown days of misschooling comes

from the middle English mosaic.

That was the name given to the red circle characteristic of the highly contagious disease.

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