A Scissors

[HoopyFrood]

I work as an editor and recently we've been doing work for a US company, and this included my writing a fair chunk of content. I tried to get all the usual American bits -- take out the Us, add in the Zs -- but there are always going to be the more obscure ones that I'm going to miss.

Today we get back a comment saying to please change 'can I borrow some scissors' to 'can I borrow a scissors'.

I immediately had to look this up because my brain refuses to do this to a plural. But I can't find much about this. One source says that in American English it is treated as singular, and then another source saying that it's more of a regional thing?

American people, please help, are there people who say 'a scissors'? Is this actually a common thing?

 

[Brian G Turner]

"a pair of"?

 

[HoopyFrood]

I was just saying that we should put that instead as a compromise.

Mainly I just want to know if 'a scissors' is actually a thing.

 

[Vertigo]

The wiki entry on scissors -

The noun scissors is treated as a plural noun, and therefore takes a plural verb (e.g., these scissors are). Alternatively, it is also referred to as a pair of scissors. In American English, a pair is singular and therefore takes a singular verb (e.g., this pair of scissors is). In other forms of English, a pair does not take the singular (so simply these scissors are).

would suggest that even in American English it should only take the singular form when used with "a pair of."

 

[TheDustyZebra]

It's generally "a pair of scissors", or "some scissors", but there are people who say "a scissors". I look cross-eyed at them, but they are out there.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Ah, thanks, Dusty, that's what I was looking for! Some evidence that this does indeed take place out in the wild. Are these a lot of people, spread about, or is it more of a regional thing? I'm intrigued as to how widespread this is, as I'm wondering if this is just what one person thinks it should be. Apparently there are a handful of people in the US company looking at the products so I'm waiting for us to send this back and get another person saying "why does this say 'a scissors'?"

 

[J Riff]

I don't like 'a scissors' ... how is it used in the sentence? Do you have scissors? Pass me the; those, scissors. Some scissors, sharp scissors, gold scissors... but not 'a' scissors. Running with 'a' scissors... no, I'm sorry...* )

 

[Overread]

You're sure they don't just go "a scissor?"

Of course there's one alternative; the person correcting you could be illiterate in American!

 

[J Riff]

Well lessee now.... 'a' scissor... would be one half of a pair of scissors, yes? Maybe. Then... 'a scissors' would be lazy, amurican-style 'breviating, wunnit?

 

[HoopyFrood]

Yes, the only way I could see it coming about is an eventual ridding of 'pair of' and just going for 'a scissors'.

And it was definitely the plural, not just a scissor. I don't like it much either, hence this thread to try and get my head around it, and I also had a small-to-medium meltdown in the office when it was first said to me

 

[Nick B]

If someone asked me for a scissors, they'd be in for a paddington bear hard stare.

 

[Hex]

My mother (who is not American, but from the highlands) does sometimes talk about "a scissor", and "a trouser". I wondered if it was some kind of hangover from Gaelic (none of us know the difference between "bring" and "take", for example, because there isn't one in Gaelic -- except my dad, of course, and it drives him wild)

Having discussed this with my mother, I would like to propose that it does actually come from Gaelic, which does odd things when it hangs over into English. It mightn't just be Gaelic, of course. Having messed about with Google Translate, I note that in a number of languages "scissors" are singular. Multiple language hangovers?

 

[Stephen Thompson]

If someone asked me for a scissor, I'd break a pair and give them a scissor.

A Scissor is wrong in every version of English that exists. Not even as a colloquialism. Charles Dickens wouldn't even pull that one and getting through the accents in Great Expectations was like swimming in pea and ham soup.

 

[Venusian Broon]

If someone asked me for a scissor, I'd break a pair and give them a scissor.

Nah, you'd then be giving them a blade or shear, not a scissor.

If someone asked you for a scissor I think it would be correct for you to "denote an action in which two things cross each other or open and close like the blades of a pair of scissors" i.e. perhaps demonstrate scissoring with your legs/arms...

 

[Stephen Thompson]

Nah, you'd then be giving them a blade or shear, not a scissor.

If someone asked you for a scissor I think it would be correct for you to "denote an action in which two things cross each other or open and close like the blades of a pair of scissors" i.e. perhaps demonstrate scissoring with your legs/arms...

I like that. They ask me for a singular scissor and I fold my arms. It's just like something I'd do.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Ah, thanks, Dusty, that's what I was looking for! Some evidence that this does indeed take place out in the wild. Are these a lot of people, spread about, or is it more of a regional thing? I'm intrigued as to how widespread this is, as I'm wondering if this is just what one person thinks it should be. Apparently there are a handful of people in the US company looking at the products so I'm waiting for us to send this back and get another person saying "why does this say 'a scissors'?"

If I were to guess, I would say it's a scattered thing, random individuals rather than regional. But I'm not positive of that. I've never noticed that it was people from a particular area, but I've also never really thought about it or studied it. It's definitely a serious minority, though. And technically incorrect ones.

 

[J-Sun]

Yeah, I second DZ on all that - I've heard it, too, but just as a weird random thing. It's not regional anywhere in the South or West that I've lived in or gone through anyway, though I can't say for sure about the North. Don't recall it being prominent in Northern people I've known or in Northern writers, though.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Thanks J-Sun.

Inteeeeresting. Maybe I'll walk into the office dramatically this morning and shout "stop that change! It's ridiculous!"

Thanks for your answers!

 

[mosaix]

A scissors? That's just not right.

 

[HareBrain]

My mother (who is not American, but from the highlands) does sometimes talk about "a scissor", and "a trouser".

I've encountered "a trouser" more than once in a clothes shop/website (possibly at the more pretentious end of the industry), along with "a jean". I suspect "an underpant" can't be far behind.