Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Langvar: Phenomena = Phenomenon

Many journalist and academics make no differentiation between phenomena and phenomenon. Typically phenomena serves as singular and plural, but phenomenon is also used for both. Sometimes this is clumsiness, but other times people really don't know the difference.

Virtually everyone does this now, but I'll name and shame someone whose journalism I respect, Ian Dunt of the I, and the excellent Origin Story on Podmasters podcasts, just because he's the last person I heard do it in public when he used "phenomenon" as a plural in the episode, well worth a listen: "Eugenics Part One: Gene Genies"