Errors & Omissions: Are we really so ignorant of Darwin even now?

On Tuesday we ran a report on research into how the colours of birds’ feathers are generated. A sub-heading said: “Scientists find secret of nature’s colouring technique through microscopic inspections”. Come off it. That sounds like a Disney studio natural history film from the 1950s: personified “nature” behaving like some pagan goddess who goes around designing birds’ wings. Surely we have taken Darwin on board by now. Living creatures are as they are because of natural selection, not “colouring technique”. You are free to believe that there is an intention behind it all, but science cannot discover any.

µ Last week we discussed the plural of “film noir”. (It is “films noirs”.) Now for an even more tricky French plural in English usage. In last week’s Magazine, Mark Hix gave a recipe for “croque monsieurs with quince cheese”. That looks very odd, because the plural of “monsieur” is “messieurs”, not “monsieurs”, but it is probably right. The plural of this French version of the ham and cheese toastie is certainly not “croques monsieur”, because “croque” (“munch”) is not a noun, but (I think) the verb element of one of those peculiarly French terms in which a verb and noun combine to make a hyphenated noun, such as “pince-nez” (“pinch-nose”). Which brings us to the one thing that is certainly wrong here: the Harrap French dictionary and the Larousse bible of gastronomy agree that “croque-monsieur” definitely takes a hyphen.

µ Now for a bit of Italian. A sub-heading on a news story published last Saturday said: “As male mafiosos are killed or arrested, females are taking their place”. Most people know the plural of “mafioso” is “mafiosi”.

µ A curious, common infelicity popped up in another sub-heading, this time introducing last Saturday’s obituary of Admiral Sir Jeremy Black: “Charismatic commander of the HMS ‘Invincible’ who played a vital role in securing victory in the Falklands”. The odd formation “the HMS” has presumably grown up by analogy with “the USS”. But pause a moment and remember what the initials stand for. “The United States ship” makes sense; “the Her Majesty’s ship” doesn’t.

µ The distinction between “less” and “fewer” is logically clear: “less” speaks of quantity, “fewer” of numbers. Less milk fills fewer bottles. Why, then, does this headline sound wrong? “Accommodation means one fewer thing for Taylor’s parents to worry about.” Probably because “less” is usually found in association with a singular noun (“milk”), fewer with a plural (“bottles”). “One less thing” just sounds right. Occasionally familiarity can trump logic.

µ Antibiotic-resistant bacteria, according to a news story published on Tuesday, raise “the spectre of a post-antibiotic era”. A spectre is a terrifying supernatural vision. I suppose it could be a vision of the future, but the word more readily conjures up something from the remote past.