The Saddest Animal in the History of Etymology

I now realise how rarely I've been updating my blog. Up until now, I've only been updating like, what, twice a week? But in the early stages of my new blog I should really keep the posts up to mantain interest from new readers. I need to follow the ways of Matthew Taranto, who really isn't a video game nerd, and Miss Hedgey, who really doesn't support incest at all, except possibly among fruits.

In one of my recent posts, I, eheh, "accidentally" mixed up the words "moose" and "muse". In that blog update I used the word moose several times and even attempted to use its plural form. But that's the funny thing. What exactly is the plural form of the word "Moose"? I typically use "mooses", but later that day I checked out Wiktionary.org, which is another branch of Wikipedia, and it had a few interesting things to say about mooses.

As it appears, the subject on the proper plural form for the word "moose" is rather controversial. Wiktionary was helpful and enlightened me a lot. If you want to read what it has to say for yourself, please your well-placed curiousity by clicking here. But in summary, it goes like this: For a long time the plural form for the word "moose" has been problematic. For a time, the word "mooses" was accepted, but its usage is now rare and considered "uneuphonious". Plus one for Wiktionary there. Some use the word "meese" (anaolgy of goose - geese), but its hard to keep a straight face when you say it, and "meese" is only used in humorous context. In the end, the authorities decided that "moose" should be treated as an invariant noun, like "fish" and "sheep"; the word works for both singular and plural.

That's the sad, sad history of the moose's name. "Etymology" means "studies on the history of words" by the way. In honour of the moose and his problematic life in the plural form, I have replaced the background of the blog with a moose standing in a nice field. If you can't see the moose, because your toolbar has been made thick by toolbars from Facebook and I don't know what, then you can remedy this my pressing the F11 key. There, doesn't he look happy? The moose is now the unofficial mascot of My Official Blog Since Two Hours Ago.

Of course, a few weeks from now someone might visit my blog for the first time and see the moose but not read this update. Then they wouldn't know his sad story and wonder why he's standing there. But it doesn't really matter; the moose makes a nice background figure by itself. Its quite a noble creature, actually. Well, it is. Its, like, a step away from a reindeer or a stag. Anyway, compared to, say, your average hippopotamus, the moose is quite a noble creature indeed.

The number of my followers has now increased by *one*. I send my thanks to my sister Hannah, who should really criticise me more. Remember, updates will be more often now, so see you in a few days~

"Of all the wonders of nature, a tree in summer is perhaps the most remarkable; with the possible exception of a moose singing "Embraceable You" in spats." ~Woody Allen

P.S. The word "moose" is used in America, nut Europe names the species "elk", the plural of which is "elks". Only American meese are unhappy.

P.S.S. The word "moose", in its original tongue (Algonquian), means "he strips off". What the hey.