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Jackson6612 Posted 19 years ago
Grammar
Where is peoples used instead of people?
water1
3 waters [plural] a large area of water, especially an ocean that is near or belongs to a particular country
the coastal waters of Alaska
Korean/Mexican/Pacific etc waters
The ship drifted into Turkish territorial waters.
a species found in inland waters (=not the sea, but rivers, lakes etc)
[LDOCE]
Where is peoples used instead of people?
3 waters [plural] a large area of water, especially an ocean that is near or belongs to a particular country
the coastal waters of Alaska
Korean/Mexican/Pacific etc waters
The ship drifted into Turkish territorial waters.
a species found in inland waters (=not the sea, but rivers, lakes etc)
[LDOCE]
Where is peoples used instead of people?
Top answer
Hi Jackson, "In the Middle Ages “peoples” was not an uncommon word, but later writers grew wary of it because “people” has a collective, plural meaning which seemed to make “peoples” superfluous. It lived on in the sense of “nations” (“the peoples of the world”) and from this social scientists (anthropologists in particular) derived the extended meaning “ethnic groups” (“the peoples of the upper Amazon Basin”). However, in ordinary usage “people” is usually understood to be plural, so much so that in the bad old days when dialect humor was popular having a speaker refer to “you peoples” indicated illiteracy.
- Hi Jackson, "In the Middle Ages “peoples” was not an uncommon word, but later writers grew wary of it because “people” has a collective, plural meaning which seemed to make “peoples” superfluous.
- It lived on in the sense of “nations” (“the peoples of the world”) and from this social scientists (anthropologists in particular) derived the extended meaning “ethnic groups” (“the peoples of the upper Amazon Basin”).
- However, in ordinary usage “people” is usually understood to be plural, so much so that in the bad old days when dialect humor was popular having a speaker refer to “you peoples” indicated illiteracy.
- html .
- Cheers, Hoa Thai
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1 Answers
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Hi Jackson,
"In the Middle Ages “peoples” was not an uncommon word, but later writers grew wary of it because “people” has a collective, plural meaning which seemed to make “peoples” superfluous. It lived on in the sense of “nations” (“the peoples of the world”) and from this social scientists (anthropologists in particular) derived the extended meaning “ethnic groups” (“the peoples
"In the Middle Ages “peoples” was not an uncommon word, but later writers grew wary of it because “people” has a collective, plural meaning which seemed to make “peoples” superfluous. It lived on in the sense of “nations” (“the peoples of the world”) and from this social scientists (anthropologists in particular) derived the extended meaning “ethnic groups” (“the peoples
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