Maple Leafs

Question

Having lived in Toronto for many years, I have come to love
the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, will or lose (lose seems
to be their favourite mode) a Leafs fan is a Leafs fan. My
issue with my beloved team is ... shouldn't proper grammer
be applied? Shouldn't it be the Toronto Maple Leaves?

As for plural of computer mouse? I say mice - I am not saying
that that is correct and the guys in IT laugh when I ask for a box
of mice ... but ... like the Leaves I want to be correct

Raul · Accepted Answer

"Toronto Maple Leafs" is a proper name, and there are no rules for names (as in Tolkien's "elfs" instead of "elves"). The plural of "mouse", either the animal or the gadget, is "mice".

Cheers!

Dinosm · Answer

Check also my post Plural of "mouse"!

The 'Maple Leafs' is indeed a proper name, and as such it has lost all connections with the real thing we like to call a maple leaf, semantically at least. When such words are 'reset' and become proper names, or otherwise come to denote things completely unrelated to their former meaning, their grammar is also 'reset', and so the regular plural suffix applies.

Kubicon · Answer

>> The plural of "mouse", either the animal or the gadget, is "mice".
That's incorrect. The plural of the name of the hardware used to move the pointer on a computer screen is not mice. No one, not even the inventor of the mouse, agrees on the proper terminology for the plural name of this device. Thus, many companies, such as Microsoft, use the term "Mouse devices", not "Mice".

Guest · Answer

This is a follow-up question:

What is the correct capitalization when a slang/nickname or abbreviated term is used for a proper name, such as using just the 'Leafs' as opposed to full name 'Toronto Maple Leafs'?

(or 'Cujo' for Curtis Joseph, or 'Web' for the World Wide Web).

MountainHiker · Answer

Kubicon,

That's incorrect. The plural of the name of the hardware used to move the pointer on a computer screen is not mice. No one, not even the inventor of the mouse, agrees on the proper terminology for the plural name of this device. Thus, many companies, such as Microsoft, use the term "Mouse devices", not "Mice".

You've got a lot of convincing to do. Almost all media organizations, including PC Magazine, use "mice". Just Google "computer mice" without the quotes and see how popular it is. And thus, the commonly accepted term is indeed mice.

Even Microsoft uses mice. See [url="http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2004/jul04/07-08StarckMouse.asp"]here[/url].

PressPass spoke with Christy Hughes, mouse product manager, to learn more about why technology has gone couture and how Microsoft Hardware is laying a design blueprint for the rest of the industry to follow.
...
Hughes: Optical Mouse by S+ARCK adds even more variety to our lineup of mice and keyboards. We feel that people will be drawn to it when looking for a mouse that is unique. We always hear from customers that they want more options and variety to choose from. They want products that reflect their personality and style. We've offered a wide variety of colors, graphics and even textures in our current lineup of wireless mice, including Black Leather, Metallic Red and Periwinkle. We've also continued to offer special edition products that are available for a limited time. This spring we introduced Wireless Optical Mouse in Groovy and Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer in Immersion and Night Vision. Now we're continuing this collection with Wireless Optical Mouse in Mood Ring, and Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer in Cobalt Basin and Crimson Fire. As you can see, our team of industrial designers said goodbye to boring beige quite some time ago.

You can also look [url="http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/apr04/04-06secolormicepr.asp"]here[/url] or [url="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;28492"]here[/url] and ad nauseum for more Microsoft references.

Hope this helps.

MountainHiker

Maple Leafs

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