To those of you who do actually care (and this might be bordering on the
ban-able)
The singular of "staves" is indeed "stave". The singular of "staves" is
also "staff".
The plural of "staff" is indeed "staves". The plural of "staff" is also
"staffs".
All of those formations are grammatically correct, and can be found in your
local dictionary.
The word "stave" itself dates back to the thirteenth century. It was formed
backwards from the word "staves", which was the plural of _staf_ (staff).
It can be used to convey a more archaic feeling that staff, and is a younger
word than "staff" itself. (BTW, the word also applies to the horizontal
lines on sheet music, just as "staff" does).
Examples: (1) The mage plunged his stave into the ground, and began to
chant.
(2) "Don't you know, father?" asked Kasumi. "The sword is
queen of battle, but those who use staffs hold the true king."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jerry Levine
Patch Monkey
"There was no difference between the behavior of a god and the
operations of pure chance..."
patchmonkey@patchmonkey.net jlevine@wam.umd.edu
maddhatter@earthling.net jerry@jancomm.com
AIM: maddxhattr
http://www.patchmonkey.net
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rebeka Thomas" <rst2003@yahoo.com>
To: "Greg Housley" <coldmatrix@hotmail.com>
Cc: <ffml@fanfic.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2000 05:48 PM
Subject: [FFML] Re: [R1/2-Shannara][x-over][Teaser]
Sorry it took so long for me to reply to that; i put it way in the back
folder (yes, it means i don't read it until i'm done with everything
else, but it also means i'm making a commitment to reading it
eventually, as you can see)
Not sure how this is in Shannara itself (and if it's used as you use it
it is incorrect as well) but the singular of "staves" is "staff" not
"stave".
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