What the hell is the singular version of "Red Sox"?

All The Hype · Sep 20, 2010

The question is how you would go about describing a singular player from the Boston Red Sox. Is he a Red Sox? Or is he a Red Sock? One looks right and sounds horribly wrong...the other sounds right and looks horribly wrong.

This has bothered me for a long time. What's the answer?

rsmath · Sep 20, 2010

technically, the singular is sock (since "sox" is defined as the plural of "sock").

In terms of the MLB team, I voted sox for both singular and plural because it might actually be more of an adjective describing the noun; such as an example using "player" as the noun --- "dustin pedroia is my favorite red sox player" or "a few red sox players are pedroia, adrian beltre and bill hall.".

I"m having a tough time trying to think how to use "red sox" in a noun situation other than maybe "pedroia is my favorite red sox" or "pedroia, beltre, hall are red sox" but those uses are probably less common than as an adjective.

darocker80 · Sep 20, 2010

Hmm i have seen people on the board "type" Red Sock player

rsmath · Sep 20, 2010

darocker80 said:
Hmm i have seen people on the board "type" Red Sock player

who exactly on the internet types things following the AP styleguide.

I'll have to see if my library has a AP styleguide in it (or online access to it) and if so, if they talk about the styling for "red sox" or "white sox".

Superfractor · Sep 20, 2010

According to linguist Steven Pinker, non-regular plural terms - such as those that are pluralized without an "s" - do not contrast in singularity. Therefore, "My favorite Red Sox is Ted Williams" is correct; the plural version, " My Red Sox have a bright future" is identical."

Mr. Pinker uses bahuvrihi compounds for his conclusion - justification.

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What the hell is the singular version of "Red Sox"?

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